WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



them to prophesy confidently what birds would be 

 likely to be found breeding at a given point. 



But few birds remain in the same region all 

 the year round. Out of about two hundred and 

 seventy-five species occurring in New England 

 or New York in June, only twenty-five or so stay 

 throughout the year ; of these, forty or fifty come 

 to us in winter only, leaving us two hundred and 

 twenty-five species of spring birds, half of which 

 number merely pass through to their Northern 

 breeding-places. With this disparity, no wonder 

 that we look for the return of the birds, and hail 

 with delight the bluebird calling to us through 

 clear March mornings, the velvet-coated robins, 

 the battalions of soldierly cedar-birds, the ghostly 

 turtle-doves sighing their surging refrain, the 

 pewees, and thrushes, and golden orioles, till at 

 last, amid the bursting foliage and quickness of 

 May life, a full host of brilliant choristers holds 

 jubilee in the sunny tree- tops. 



In a very few days, as suddenly and mysteriously 

 as they came, half the gay company has passed 

 us, going farther north to breed. Could we follow 

 this army, we should find it thinning gradually, 

 as one species after another found its appropriate 

 station a part in upper New England and Canada, 



38 



