8 



familiar way ; nevertheless, it is a sociable, gentle bird, and if un- 

 molested will build and rear its young in the same spot, under the 

 eaves of some outbuilding, or in a deserted Martin's box or even a 

 knothole in a fence post. 



For several years when the large rustic pavilion was standing in 

 the centre of the Horticultural Society's Gardens the Blue Birds 

 used to build regularly every season among the rafters of the roof, 

 and their soft warbling notes could be heard all through the summer 

 as, j)erched on the ridge, they dressed and plumed their feathers 

 after returning from the capture of some moth or grasshopper or other 

 insect prey. 



Sometimes in the last days of March, though generally not until 

 the 3rd, 6th or 7th of April, comes an old friend, familiar to most of 

 us from boyhood, the Pee-wee, Fly-Catcher (Sayornis Fusca). Al- 

 though it has but the one plaintive note, pee-wee, sometimes long- 

 drawn out, and then changing into a little tremulous, murmuring 

 twitter, as flying down from its perch on the housetop, or the gable 

 of some old barn, it snaps up a passing insect, yet few sounds of 

 bird voices are pleasanter to the lover of nature, for it is suggestive 

 of warmth and sunshfne, the waking up of insect life and all the 

 gladness and freshness of spring. What should render this Fly- 

 Catcher a special ftivourite with ns is the tameness and familiarity 

 with which It harbours about our dwellings, and its attachment to 

 the same spot wherein to build its nest year after year ; it may be 

 under the eaves of the barn or stable, or, as if boldly claiming our 

 pi'Otection, it will attach its fabric of mud and moss, and fine grasses, 

 to some convenient ledge under the roof of our verandahs, where its 

 proceedings may be watched day by day by all the inmates of the 

 house. 



By the 5th or 10th of April the Tree Sparrow (Spizella Monticola), 

 and the Chipping Sparrow (Spizella Domestica), have made their 

 appearance. The latter well merits its epithet of Domestica, for it is 

 one of the tamest and most sociable of our feathered friends, and 

 under the name of "grey bird" is known to almost every child in 

 the country. No sweeter song is heard at this season ot the year 

 than the warbling of that handsome bird, the Purple Finch, Carpo- 

 dacus Furpureus), which, although it may occasionally be seen in a 

 very mild winter in company with the Siskin, or Crossbills, yet is 

 a sufficiently rai'e winter bird to make its advent the more marked 



