66 Feathered Pioneers [FIRST WEEK 



hairy or downy woodpecker. The latter two are almost 

 counterparts of each other, although the downy is the 

 more common. They hammer cheerfully upon the sound- 

 ing boards which Nature has provided for them, striking 

 slow or fast, soft or loud, as their humour dictates. 



Near New York, a day in March I have found it 

 varying from March 8 to March 12 is " crow day." 

 Now the winter roosts apparently break up, and all day 

 flocks of crows, sometimes thousands upon thousands of 

 them, pass to the northward. If the day is quiet and 

 spring-like, they fly very high, black motes silhouetted 

 against the blue, but if the day is a March day," with 

 whistling, howling winds, then the black fellows fly close 

 to earth, rising just enough to clear bushes and trees, and 

 taking leeward advantage of every protection. For days 

 after, many crows pass, but never so many as on the first 

 day, when crow law, or crow instinct, passes the word, 

 we know not how, which is obeyed by all. 



For miles around not a drop of water may be found; 

 it seems as if every pool and lake were solid to the bottom, 

 and yet, when we see a large bird, with goose-like body, 

 long neck and long, pointed beak, flying like a bullet of 

 steel through the sky, we may be sure that there is open 

 water to the northward, for a loon never makes a mistake. 

 When the first pioneer of these hardy birds passes, he 

 knows that somewhere beyond us fish can be caught. If 

 we wonder where he has spent the long winter months, 

 we should take a steamer to Florida. Out on the ocean, 

 sometimes a hundred miles or more from land, many of 

 these birds make their winter home. When the bow of 



