The Birds and Poets 37 



The visit of the Grinnell's water thrush to my 

 yard was a noteworthy event. While this bird is 

 perhaps the most common of the water thrushes 

 passing through this area, he is seldom seen away 

 from low, wet thickets, and I was much surprised 

 at his appearance on my lawn. While he is classed 

 as a warbler, he resembles the thrushes in appear- 

 ance, though he is smaller and less brown, having 

 a drab, white-striped coat, and he moves with a 

 marked tilt of his trim body as he pauses in his 

 course through the grass or among the low bushes. 



However brief my visits to the woods in April 

 may be, I am always sure of a warm welcome 

 from the birds when I return their call, and it 

 is remarkable what a vast amount of pleasure one 

 may receive from short trips of this kind, stolen 

 here and there from the busy hours of the ordi- 

 nary workdays. The birds are busy much earlier 

 than we are, and it is not at all necessary that 

 one's appointments with them be either inter- 

 rupted or cancelled altogether because of the 

 business cares that "infest the day." We may see 

 them at all times in their homes in the early 

 morning, and still be at office or shop in ample 

 time for the day's work. 



A thirty-minute walk which I took on the 

 morning of April 13th might be cited as an 

 example. I crossed a bridge over the Desplaines 

 River, and in the meadow lying to the west heard 

 the songs of both field and song sparrows (among 

 the most beautiful songsters of the sparrow fam- 



