TWELVE MONTHS 



WITH THE BIRDS 



AND POETS 



APRIL. 



Once more in misted April 

 The world is growing green. 

 Along the winding river 

 The plumy willows lean. 



The golden-wings and blue birds 

 Call to their heavenly choirs. 

 The pines are blued and drifted 

 With smoke of brushwood fires. 



— Bliss Carman. 



HE birds' year begins with 

 April, regardless of the 

 calendar makers! January- 

 has been the first calendar 

 month of the year since the 

 days of Caesar, but how in- 

 congruous and impossible 

 to begin a twelve months' 

 study of the birds, with any 

 other month than April! All men and birds and 

 flowers are born again in this glorious month, when 



