JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 71 
dangerous fascination to various insects, such as the smaller moths 
and two-winged flies as well as to the species of wild bees, etc., and 
the blue-birds are occasionally seen to dart into the fluid sap con- 
tained in the brimming pails when chasing the moths or to seize the 
latter, as a tasty food morsel, as the insect in a half drowned con- 
dition struggles and flutters in its dangerous bath. But should a 
protracted cold spell occur, as sometimes happens late in April, the 
insect tribes stay in their retreats, and numbers of the robins die of 
hunger, and are found in an emaciated state under the barn floors 
or in open hay sheds. Usually of late years the moths (that are 
mostly the imago of the tent caterpillar) and are so numerous and 
ubiquitous in the forests and orchards that various species of birds 
obtain an abundance of food before vegetation has made any pro- 
gress visible to the eye. 
The phoebe flycatcher, too, is an early arrival, and has been 
noticed in the sugar bushes for the past ten days, and frequents the 
outbuildings about barns in quest of spiders and their ova, which 
are abundant about the rafters and interior frame timbers of the 
cattle byers and similar structures. 
The song sparrows’ refrain too is heard at as early a date as the 
note of the blue-bird. A few of these grass finches were heard and 
seen early as the 23rd March, and we suspect a few have stayed 
near dwellings about here during the whole of the past winter, find- 
ing food and shelter about the long grass, well protected by the low 
branches of evergreen trees and shrubs that grow about the farmers’ 
homes. 
The kill-deer-plovers come around as soon as there are pools of 
water in the depressions of the fields, the result of the first decided 
thaw, and the cries of these birds are now daily heard, and the oc- 
casional refrain of the meadow lark also. Those engaged in the 
manufacture of maple syrup say that a few grackles have been seen. 
The indications are that the spring will bea late one. It is 
quite cold and March like to-day, and there has been but a very 
scanty run of maple sap so far. My son tells me that he heard the 
first faint piping of frogs in the swamp to-day (April 4th, 1900), and 
there is much ice and the remains of snow drifts in shaded parts of 
tthe woods yet, and there seems to be no likelihood of spring flowers 
for at least a week to come. 
