FEATHERED PHILOSOPHERS 1 01 



up, and with wings spread dropped 

 quickly on the forking prison, and 

 with feet braced seized the choking 

 bird by the neck with his beak, with 

 one jerk releasing her, unhurt save for 

 the loss of some feathers. 



How the bird colours ebb and flow 

 from spring until autumn ! The grays 

 of March and April are glinted by 

 flying colour, though the earliest birds 

 are more soberly clad than those that 

 arrive when the leafage has grown. 

 Wise Mother Nature, to drape your 

 scouts in browns and russets with a 

 dash of sky-blue or bark-green ! How 

 would the tanager, oriole, redstart, the 

 chat and Maryland yellow-throat, or 

 the bouquet of warblers escape the birds 

 of prey, if when they came they found 

 only bare branches? And the great, 

 gold, swallow-tailed butterflies also, 

 with the blue, the brick-red, and the 



