SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 11 
dreds and thousands of their lifeless bodies in shops, on 
hats and fans, in private cases and in museums, knowing 
too that for every one preserved many more are wasted 
and thrown away, we only wonder that any remain. 
We may truly say of these, as was said of old of other 
things, “Except these days be shortened, none shall be 
saved.” 
To those who truly love the birds and who make 
pleasant companionship with them, a yearly chronicling . 
of their first arrival in the spring is an agreeable recrea- 
tion. The observing naturalist knows pretty well when 
to expect the different species, although the weather 
may hasten or retard for a few days the arrival of some 
of the earlier migrants. A few of the hardier species 
remain in this latitude the year round. Among these 
are the snow-buntings, snow-birds, woodpeckers, nut- 
hatches and titmice. The buntings and snow-birds feed 
mostly from seeds of the tall weeds which stand above 
the snow, while the others live on larve and insects’ 
eggs, hidden in the bark of shrubs and trees, so that all 
weather is alike to them excepting when the trees are 
covered with a coating of ice. Many a day during the 
past winter, when the thermometer was near zero, and 
sometimes even below, the little black-capped titmouse 
(Parus attricapilus), cheerful and sprightly, lisped out 
his chick-a-de-dee as he searched the limbs of the maple 
trees for food. Occasionally on milder mornings, his 
sweet, plaintive whistle, much resembling that of the 
white-throated sparrow, was a grateful surprise, as this 
whistle is his usual love-song, oftener heard at mating 
