58 BIRD PARADISE 



quite sure it is a member of the sparrow family, 

 but it passes out to the field before I have a fair 

 view of his trim form. Very soon the sparrows 

 from the K^orth will appear, adding not a little to 

 the attractions of our bird world. 



Most of our birds have now graduated their 

 young, leaving the old birds free to roam far and 

 wide for the next ten months. Adjourning the 

 housekeeping adjourns the song also, no more 

 singing until they come on for the season's work 

 next spring. As a rule the vacation time is the 

 occasion for "breaking forth into singing," but 

 it is not so with the birds. They have no use 

 for music only when they are putting both hands 

 to toil with all their might. I remember seeing 

 many of our song birds wintering in Oklahoma, 

 each having his own special chirp with him, but 

 not a particle of song. It is a marvel how the 

 fellows pick it up so easily when they have been 

 without it so long. The great singers of the hu- 

 man family need to be in daily practice, and a 

 silence of ten months would almost destroy voice 

 and all use of it. Not so, however, with the 

 birds. They pick up the thread right where 

 they dropped it and go right on as though they 



