V 

 OLD FRIENDS IN NEW PLACES 



LAST winter and early spring in central Georgia 

 I had great pleasure in the little glimpses of 

 wild life, mostly bird-hfe, that I got from the win- 

 dows of the cabin study which my friend built for 

 me ia one corner of an old unused building situated 

 in a secluded place near a bushy spring run and a 

 grove of pine- and oak-trees. Many of our more 

 northern birds — such as song sparrows, bluebirds, 

 juncoes, and white-throats — winter in Georgia and 

 impart a sort of spring air to the more secluded 

 places at aU times. The mockingbird, the brown 

 thrasher, the cardinal, the meadowlark, the crested 

 titmouse, the Carolina wren, the blue jay, the 

 downy woodpecker, and a few others are there the 

 year round. 



February in Georgia is like April in New York or 

 New England, and March has many of the features 

 of early May. In late February or early March the 

 red maples are humming with honey-bees and the 

 elms are beginning to unpack their floral budgets. 



The sparrows — white-throats and song sparrows 

 — were at home in the weedy and bushy ground 

 around my little hermitage, and I soon encouraged 

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