iv PREFACE 



ers, with a few miscellaneous notes. The autumn 

 dates for birds show the times of arrival of the 

 more conspicuous migrants and winter visitors from 

 the north. The dates given I believe to be very 

 near the average ; but N ature is, within limits, so 

 variable and uncertain in her goings in and com- 

 ings out, that we cannot expect her to follow this 

 schedule with any regularity. The bluebird may 

 come on the twenty-second of February or not for 

 a month later ; apple-trees may bloom on the tenth 

 of May or wait until the twentieth. An early sea- 

 son or a late season is a consequence of favorable 

 or unfavorable weather, either here or in some other 

 region upon which we are dependent. We must 

 not take the poet too literally when we read, 



" Ah ! well I mind the calendar, 

 Faithful through a thousand years, 

 Of the painted race of flowers, 

 Exact to days, exact to hours, 

 Counted on the spacious dial 

 Yon broidered zodiac girds. 

 I know the trusty almanac 

 Of the punctual coming-back, 

 On their due days, of the birds." 



These days and hours are not to be reckoned by 

 our own Gregorian calendar; but if we count them 

 on a more spacious dial, we shall find the almanac 

 of the birds and the flowers as trusty as Emerson 

 found it. 



