JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 145 
larve, and pupa and hibernating insect irnago disinterred, and the 
birds know that crushing sounds of falling trees means to them food 
supply. Last week his companion chopper noticed a big white Ow] 
perched on a tree being mobbed by from twenty to thirty noisy 
Crows swooping near the Owl, who merely turned its big head 
from side to side as if to keep a weather eye on its tormentors. 
March 22, 1904.—The much longed for spring-time seems 
looming up at last. ‘The thermometer shows 50° this morning, and 
the Robins are proportionately “chirrupy.” ‘They were noticed 
here about two weeks ago. One frosty morning about ten of them 
in a party of pioneer adventurers appeared around our dwelling. I 
think they must have been very tired of ‘‘ Dixie Land” to come 
here to an inhospitable snow-covered region, to explore fresh 
horizons of snow. The Song Sparrow was heard singing blithely on 
the 17th inst. What an amazing effect on the animal creation has a 
rise of a few degrees in the aerial temperature. It is now 49 at 2 
p. m., March 22nd. The big Hawks are screaming and wheeling in 
their upper air flights. They, like the bees and wasps, pair aloft, 
and are seen to tumble to earth with talons clinched, male and 
female. In spite of this the Snow-buntings were said to be about 
several of our fields yesterday and to-day. My son assures me that . 
the date of his first hearing the Blue-birds this year was the roth of 
March. O hers who are much in the woods daily corroborate this 
fact for 1904. 
There is much evidence that wild birds have strong local attach- 
ments. One of my friends has just been telling me the story of a 
Robin that had lost one leg by some misadventure returning in 
several successive spring seasons to a certain clump of verdurous 
grape vines in his garden for the purpose of nesting and rearing a 
number of families of young Robins. 
Another instance of local affection or attachment was observed 
by the writer, and may be narrated as follows: A few summers ago 
a peculiar unfamiliar bird warble was heard to proceed from a small 
tree growing among other shrubs on the margin of a clover meadow. 
Curiosity impelled me to attempt to discover what new species of 
musician had sprung into notice, and an approach to the strange 
bird sufficiently near ta ascertain its species was accomplished, and 
the adventurer was seen to be an ordinary Bob-o-link, with a 
