IV. 

 WHEN DAFFODILS BEGIN TO PEER. 



|HE white-throated and white-crowned 

 sparrows have lingered longer about 

 the garden and the copse than usual 

 before retiring to distant coverts. Thanks to 

 unremitting warfare, my premises are compara- 

 tively clear of the English sparrow, so it is pos- 

 sible to hear the song-birds. Next to the in- 

 comparable music of the hermit-thrush, I think 

 the major and minor of these two sparrows, who 

 are almost always in each other's company, one 

 of the most pleasing of all our bird-voices. They 

 are more sociable than the hermit-thrush, who 

 sings his hymn only in the most secluded wood- 

 lands ; the latter has hurried past us this sea- 

 son, not making his customary pause on his re- 

 turn trip. The blackbirds have suddenly disap- 

 peared, after a brief dress-parade on the lawn. 

 Over the distant lowlands I hear the vibrating 



