THE ITAMILTON ASSOCIATION. it 
noticed on the oth, also same date eight or nine wild geese were seen 
flying westward. The making of maple sugar had by the gth of 
March become general, and the whole of the month of March up to 
date has been abnormally warm, though with occasional frosty 
nights, and there was thunder on the 5th and onthe 17th. The song 
sparrow was heard singing on the 11th, which is unusually early, 
and the twittering of numerous shore larks has been a familiar sound 
all winter. 
The pewit fly catcher promptly made their appearance at dawn of 
day on the 18th,—they were certainly not here at dark the evening 
previous and the same day the thermometer got up to 66 degrees in 
a shed that had a northern exposure open. 
The kill-dear plovers generally appear some days in advance of 
the cranes whose advent we have not been apprised of yet, but the 
plover’s scream was heard on the morning of the 12th and has been 
frequent about the pools of water in hollows of pastures and 
meadows since the date indicated. 
Reddish butterflies emerged from their wintry retreats as soon 
as maple trees were tapped, and with numbers of dark-colored moths 
hovered about the sap vessels, attracted by the saccharine odors in 
sugar bushes. I think it is obvious that the first arrival of bluebirds 
are pioneer males, who fly northward to the limits of the warmer 
area, and are rarely seen to alight in their exploration, but a few 
days afterwards females are seen, and then many courtship rivalries 
are noticeable ; in fact, for days past, robins combatting like game 
cocks has been an every day phenomenon. 
In the course of our employment, when cutting and hauling 
logs in the woods during the past winter, several ruffled grouse came 
near to the littered hayseed that had become scattered on the sur- 
face of the snow where our horses had been fed on bundles of clover 
and timothy in the noontide hour, and these birds showed consider- 
able acumen in being willing to come to such a spot when the 
horses were unattended, but exhibited much wariness and shyness 
when human beings approach; we have noticed the same trait 
about these birds when we have been cattle hunting in the woods in 
summer time; for on going silently and with much caution towards 
the browsing catttle, a party of pheasants have been sometimes seen 
scratching among the dried leaves near the bovines without show- 
