148 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
bees. He is an experienced apiarist. Others report that they have 
lost every colony. 
I love to hear the song of the Meadow Lark ( Alanda Magna), 
who are all around our pastures now. ‘Their song is brief, but 
melodious, and though not very varied, the notes are rich in tone, 
and have a decided resemblance (regarded separately) to those of 
the Skylark, and I can perceive but a very slight affinity in these 
birds to the European Starling, which some say exists. 
The Grass Finches are now melodious. ‘There are two or three 
species. The Red-wing Grackles are now much in evidence in the 
swales where Zypha latifolia grows. 
_In an extensive timbered swamp about two and a-half miles 
from here Crane Clans are numerous. I was observing a day or 
two ago, in the presence of a young man (a well-known local gunner), 
that dozens of Crane nests could now be seen amid the leafless 
branches of the big trees, when the youth added : “‘ It would be more 
correct if you averred that there are hundreds of Crane nests in that 
cedar swamp ; they are like wicker-work, and as big as a bushel 
basket.” Where these birds nest is a perfect solitude and quite 
undrained. The Cranes could be seen during the snow and frigid 
spell of eight days ago cowering and wretched looking in their 
dreary last year’s nests right down to the rgth, with a frosty gale 
blowing, and no visible open water. Yet the Vesper Sparrows came 
out about the hour of sunset from under their temporary shelter of 
the bottom rail of old fences, and sung falteringly a few blithesome 
notes. 
The date of the Swallows’ spring arrival here is with but little 
variation from the 24th April, and the Wrens almost invariably 
appear here, about their familiar nest houses put up for them on high 
posts, during the last three days of April. 
The Orioles and Bob-o-links and Rudicella Musicapa now-a-days 
come a week or more earlier than in the former days ; to these may 
be added the yellow Orchard Warbler. 
For some thirty years past I have been rather puzzled with a 
shrub very much resembling Pyrus arbutifolia of the botanies. It 
grows in bogs in rather dense patches, or did years ago. It is 
pretty when in blossom, and always reminds one of the hedge 
hawthorn of England, but has plum-like leaves. In ‘ Floral Life” 
