THE BUILDING OF THE NEST. 139 



of tl)e 



THOSE who have lived a part or all of their 

 lives in the country know from observation, 

 while those who have spent their days in town 

 know from hearsay or books, that a very large 

 proportion of our birds remain with us only from 

 April to October or later ; while yet others, on 

 the approach of winter, come from the north to 

 escape the rigors of an arctic climate, and a 

 considerable number of most interesting species 

 are strictly resident. This striking feature of 

 bird life is by no means confined to North 

 America, and perhaps it is, in most respects, 

 more suggestive as observed on other continents. 

 However this may be, it is so noticeable an oc- 

 currence on our Atlantic seaboard, that the com- 

 ing and going of this or that bird has passed 

 into our folk-lore, and more than one weather 

 proverb is based upon the arrival or departure of 

 wild-geese, fish-hawks, and the swallows. 



Although very much more is now known of 

 these seasonal movements of our birds than was 

 but a few years ago, it is not yet, and probably 

 never will be, possible to determine the " law " of 

 migration, for the simple reason that the spring- 

 tide northward and autumnal southward flight of 

 our inland birds has not that element of regular- 



