Earliest Signs of Spring 



humble family. He not only puts in an ap- 

 pearance several weeks before the other migrants, 

 but is almost gone again before the main part of 

 the host begins to arrive ; enjoying the monop- 

 oly of our admiration for the large and varied 

 migrant group, not at all chary of his wild, sweet 

 strains while he is with us, and gladdening every 

 locality to which he comes with his vivacity, 

 friendliness, and melodious talents. When he 

 leaves us he becomes a messenger of light and 

 life to the cheerless tracts of Labrador. 



One of the earliest arrivals among our summer 

 species, of which I found a small flock in the 

 woods, is a very pretty little blackbird — speak- 

 ing only of the male, for his lady is a dreadful- 

 looking creature — called the cow-bird, much 

 smaller than a robin, iridescent black through- 

 out, except the rich brown head and neck. 

 When we say it is polygamous and without nat- 

 ural affection — building no nest, but leaving its 

 eggs in the nests of other species, like European 

 cuckoos — we need hardly add it is the most cu- 

 rious anomaly in avian character that we have. 

 It curiously illustrates the fact that "blood tells," 

 for the young cow-birds, on leaving the nest, 

 abandon their foster-parents, that have been to 

 them all that parents can be, and consort with 

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