BIRD PARADISE 121 



removed from all sights and sounds of civiliza. 

 tion. Just how they know when to start north- 

 ward again I have not discovered, but they do 

 know, and as surely as May comes the bobolinks 

 api>ear fully equipped for the summer's campaign. 



The courage of the little sparrow-hawk is 

 hardly excelled by any member of his large 

 family. The other morning I was busy in my 

 garden when suddenly a great commotion in the 

 orchard attracted my attention. Thirty or forty 

 birds of all species were participants in the up- 

 roar, the noise increasing until I felt quite sure 

 all birddom was celebrating a real Fourth of July. 

 Just at this juncture I discovered a little spar- 

 row-hawk, dashing out into the field beyond the 

 garden. I saw he carried an extra burden, and 

 a little later found that he had picked up one of 

 the young robins on my lawn. The birds pur- 

 sued him, making his course anything but pleas- 

 ant. He dropped down on the farther end of the 

 garden, but found that his troubles had only just 

 begun. The attacking party grew more and more 

 excited. They tumbled over the hawk almost 

 in a body. Again he tried to escape by flight, 

 but the birds kept with him, and the last I saw 



