BIRDS AND SEASONS xv 



short is the time when we are blessed by the songs of 

 birds. 



Meanwhile the feathered army has begun its retreat 

 to winter quarters. As early as July 15, Tree Swallows 

 will arrive and by the end of the month will be seen resting 

 in rows on wayside telegraph wires, or en route to their 

 roosts in the marshes. In the now heavily leaved forests 

 the returning Warblers and Flycatchers will not be so 

 easily observed as they were in May, but in September 

 they become too abundant to be overlooked. The south- 

 ward movement grows in strength until late September, 

 when the greater part of the insect-eating birds have left 

 us, and it is terminated by the frosts, and consequent 

 falling leaves, of October. 



But just as in the spring some of the northbound 

 migrants drop from the ranks to spend the summer with 

 us, so in the fall some of the southbound travelers will 

 remain with us for the winter. The Junco, which we are 

 wont to think of as only a winter bird, arrives the latter 

 part of September to remain until April, and with him 

 come the Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper and 

 Winter Wren — all to stay until spring. October will 

 bring the Horned Lark, Pine Finch, Snow Bunting, Tree 

 Sparrow and Northern Shrike and these birds with the 

 ones just mentioned, and the ever faithful Permanent 

 Residents, give us a goodly winter company. 



But the possibilities do not end here; there may be 

 Redpolls, American and also White-winged Crossbills, 

 perhaps Pine Grosbeaks, and, best of all, Evening Gros- 

 beaks, who of recent years have been coming to us more 

 or less regularly from no man knows where. 



So from one year's end to the other, there is not a month, 

 a week or day which has not interests of its own. The 

 bird student may pass his life in one place, but he can 

 never say "I have finished" for the morrow may bring 



