My Boyhood and Youth 



to get acquainted and talk the thing over. 

 Some species held regular daily meetings for 

 several weeks before finally setting forth on 

 their long southern journeys. Strange to say, 

 we never saw them start. Some morning we 

 would find them gone. Doubtless they mi- 

 grated in the night time. Comparatively few 

 species remained all winter, the nuthatch, 

 chickadee, owl, prairie chicken, quail, and a 

 few stragglers from the main flocks of ducks, 

 jays, hawks, and bluebirds. Only after the 

 country was settled did either jays or bluebirds 

 winter with us. 



The brave, frost -defying chickadees and 

 nuthatches stayed all the year wholly inde- 

 pendent of farms and man's food and affairs. 



With the first hints of spring came the brave 

 little bluebirds, darling singers as blue as the 

 best sky, and of course we all loved them. Their 

 rich, crispy warbling is perfectly delightful, 

 soothing and cheering, sweet and whisperingly 

 low, Nature's fine love touches, every note 

 going straight home into one's heart. And 

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