SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 
Marcu 27.—Among the fair gifts which the bright 
days of spring will bestow upon us, none are looked 
forward to with livelier anticipation of pleasure than the 
coming of the birds. If there is a tender spot in the heart, 
it will leap with a thrill of joy as the first musical note 
of the robin or bluebird falls on the ear, an invocation 
from awakening nature. It is the return of dear friends 
from long and perilous journeys. The only flaw in our 
enjoyment of them is the thought that only a fraction 
of those which left us last summer and autumn will 
return. Like the soldiers of an harassed army, many 
fell on field and highway on their southern journey ; 
others were destroyed for food in the land to which 
they had gone to escape the cold of our winters, while 
still a larger number were killed and are being killed on 
their homeward journey. Each year these annual 
migrations are beset with increased perils. The country 
over which they pass offers fewer secure feeding places. 
Forests have been cut down; swamps have been drained; 
the freedmen who often watch for this small game are 
becoming more generally provided with fire-arms ; 
additional lighthouses have been erected along the 
coasts. These latter are sources of peculiar danger to 
