AN ISLAND GARDEN 39 



thrush, only comes for worms, to which he is 

 more than welcome. Most of the other birds 

 bobolinks, kingbirds, orioles, purple finches, and 

 many other beautiful creatures less familiar 

 stay with us for a short time only, on their pas- 

 sage north or south every year ; but a single pair 

 of kingbirds build every summer in the one tall 

 elm-tree on the island, where also builds a cosy 

 nuthatch and raises a numerous family, and one 

 pair of most interesting kingfishers haunts the 

 upper cove till late in the season. A Maryland 

 yellow-throat began building here last summer. 

 For several years one pair of cuckoos lingered 

 through the summer, but at last ceased to come. 

 A few blackbirds build, the white-throats stay 

 late, but several varieties of swallows, the song- 

 sparrows, and sandpipers remain and rear their 

 broods. How we wish the robins would stay too, 

 and the orioles and all the sweet company ! But 

 there are no trees to shelter them. Their coming 

 and going, however, is a matter of the greatest 

 interest to the little family on the island, and we 

 are thrown into a state of the deepest excitement 

 by the apparition of a scarlet tanager, or a rose- 

 breasted grosbeak, or any of those unfamiliar 

 beauties. Once a ferruginous thrush came and 

 stayed a week with us in early June. Every day 

 when he perched on a ridge-pole or chimney-top 

 and sang, the whole family turned out in a body 

 to listen, making a business of it, attending to no- 

 thing else while that thrilling melody was poured 

 out on the silent air. That was a gift of the gods 

 which we could, none of us, afford to neglect ! 



