Birds and Seasons 103 



of the Black-poll Warbler, and the silencing of his quaint pebble-like 

 clicking notes — one of the very best indicators, by the way — the season of 

 spring migration has happily drawn to a close. So, with the going out 

 of May, the exciting period of the past few weeks has suddenly termi- 

 nated, and we find ourselves face to face with a new order of things. 



With the birds it is the central or focusing point in many of their 

 careers, while to ourselves as students it should bring forth a season of 

 no mean importance. 



First, for the opportunity thus given us for determining to a degree 

 of certainty the number and kind of our permanent and summer-resident 

 forms; second, for the very great interest attachable to a more thorough 

 knowledge of their nesting ways. 



June, to the majority of our birds, means the great nursery month of 

 the year. A very considerable number of them, it is true, may have 

 anticipated it from one to several weeks' time. Again, there are others 

 that will delay all nest -building operations for several weeks yet to come. 

 In any event, however, the question of food suitable for the needs of 

 their growing j^oung, at the proper season, has much to do in explain- 

 ing their otherwise eccentric habits, whether they are late or early 

 breeders, as the case may be. 



June is also the month when a gradual cessation of the season of song 

 is noticeable. The Bobolinks, Grasshopper and Henslow's Sparrows of 

 our meadows and fields, the Marsh Wrens in the sloughs, or the Red- 

 eyed and Yellow-throated Vireos of the deeper woods, together with the 

 Indigo Buntings in the sproutland clearings, may continue to interest us 

 with their songs, some for a few weeks, others, like the Indigo, the entire 

 summer through; still we, nevertheless, have not failed of detecting a 

 degree of listlessness on the part of others, for example the Robin, 

 Baltimore Oriole, Thrasher and Scarlet Tanager. 



An over-taxed parental care may suggest an explanation in the case 

 of some, but for the many a much better solution is offered in the 

 approaching season of molt. As it is, the middle of July finds our mid- 

 summer chorus sadly decimated, both in the number of individual per- 

 formers, as well as in the quality of songs offered. 



So to study, then, our birds to the best advantage we must visit 

 them in their weedy lowland haunts, the hedges and the wet meadows, 

 where many have congregated prior to the formation of their summer 

 roosts. 



We are sure to find there the Dickcissel and the Bobolink — old males 

 of the latter in molting parti -colored dress — the Song and the Henslow's 

 Sparrows, and at certain times and places, the Bronze and Red -winged 

 Blackbirds in mixed fiocks of old and young. In the lowlands, too, the 

 Black -crowned Night Heron is also much in evidence during wet seasons. 



