THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. AI 
the owl, and the droll motley markings on the faces of young 
lambs remind one of the pantomimic rouged, the azure design, and 
arabesque on the face of the circus clown! 
March 28th, 1893. 
Phe 
The pleasant season of spring is now evidently at hand, and we 
are daily expecting to lgmar the voice of the plowman with his team 
in the fertile glebe. 
There are still small fragments of the winter’s snowdrifts to be 
seen in northern exposures of shaded fence corners, and people who 
are at work in the maple sugar bushes assure us that there is yet 
much frost in the ground, under the fallen leaves of the woods. 
The Song Sparrows have built their nests in the meadows, as also 
have some crows. The Phoebe Fly-catchers occasionally fly in at 
the open door or window of our house in their eager search for a 
suitable nesting-place. The Hylas were first heard piping on the 
24th of March, and now they are quite demonstrative with their 
chorus in the bog puddles. 
The coming of the hardier species of insectivorous birds before 
the snow of winter has much diminished is a remarkable phenomenon. 
It is caused, perhaps, by the undue pressure of the bird population 
in those milder climates to which they resort on the approach of 
winter. I have been assured by acquaintances, who have wintered 
in Tennessee and Carolina, that Robins, Grackles, Wood-peckers, 
Fly-Catchers, and other common species, remained there during the 
entire year ; and it is to be noted here that a few hours of warm 
sunshine, or a warm south wind setting in at the beginning of March 
or even late in February, will cause a host of insects to emerge from 
their winter hiding-places, and these become a source of sustenance 
to bird life. 
So soon as the maples are tapped, and the receiving pails are 
partly filled with sap, great numbers of dark-colored moths assemble 
near the oozing fluid, probably attracted by its saccharine effluvium. 
These and many other two-winged flies, and several species of 
Hymenoptera, hover constantly about the sap vessels, and area 
source of some trouble to the syrup makers. <A mere rise of the 
temperature of the air, say up to 50 degrees of the thermometer, is 
sufficiently attractive to cause the ornithic wave to flow hither, and 
thirty or forty hours of warm April sun will bring out the Hepaticas, 
