THE HIGH TIDE OF BIRD LIFE 



FOB abundance and for perfection of song 

 and plumage, of the whole year, May is the 

 month of birds. Insects appear slowly in thb 

 spring and are numerous all summer; squirrels 

 and mice are more or less in evidence during all 

 the twelve months; reptiles unearth themselves 

 at the approach of the warm weather, and may 

 be found living their slow, sluggish life until late 

 in the fall. In eggs, cocoons, discarded bird's- 

 nests, in earthen burrows, or in the mud at the 

 bottom of pond or stream, all these creatures have 

 spent the winter near where we find them in the 

 spring. But birds are like creatures of another 

 world; and, although in every summer's walk we 

 may see turtles, birds, butterflies, and chipmunks, 

 all interweaving their life paths across one an- 

 other's haunts, yet the power of extended flight 

 and the wonderful habit of continental migration 

 set birds apart from all other living creatures. 

 A bird during its lifetime has almost twice the 

 conscious existence of, say, a snake or any hiber- 

 nating mammal. And now in early May, when 

 the creatures of the woods and fields have only 

 recently opened their sleepy eyes and stretched 

 their thin forms, there comes the great world- 



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