Alabama, 1913. 53 



SPRING WINDS. 



♦©■♦- 



WHEN winds of March like silvery trumpets blow, 

 The whole dead world awakens with new birth; 

 The sun smiles forth, and verdant grasses grow 

 Green mantling the earth. 



When winds of April flute like pipes of Pan, 



The brooks and rills awake to dance and sing; 

 The birds across the continent's wide span 



Come back on eager wing. 

 But when the winds of May all laugh in glee, 



Ah, then, like Orpheus from heaven's bowers, 

 The spring leads back to earth with melody 



The thronging, thronging flowers ! 



— Edward Wilbur Mason. 



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THE WOOD-DUCK. 



♦&♦- 



THE beauty of the Wood-Duck, or Summer-Duck, depends al- 

 most wholly upon its brilliantly colored plumage ; for its form 

 is quite commonplace. It may be wrong to make a cold-blooded 

 analysis of its points, but for beauty of form, and the neck of this 

 bird is too small and too short, its head is too large, and its body is 

 very ordinary. Its plumage, however, presents a color-scheme of 

 brilliant reds, greens, blacks, browns, yellows and whites which is 

 quite bewildering. Even its weak little bill is colored scarlet and 

 white, and its iris is bright red. 



In my opinion the claims of the two duck species which are 

 rivals for the prize for web-footed beauty may fairly be expressed 

 by the following proportion : 



The Pintail is to the Wood-Duck as a well gowned American 

 woman is to a Chinese Mandarin. 



The Wood-Duck needs no description. Among ducks it is 

 equalled in gorgeous colors only by its nearest relative, the man- 



