SUGAR MAPLES.— ROBINS. 
15 
sees it dropping from the branches, and probably the Indians first 
discovered its sweetness from this habit. One would think that 
the loss of so much sap would necessarily injure the trees ; but it 
is not so ; they remain perfectly healthy, after yielding every 
spring, gallons of the fluid. 
Wednesday, 21d. — A thunder-shower last night, by way of 
keeping the equinox, and this morning, to the joy of the whole 
community, the arrival of the robins is proclaimed. It is one of 
the great events of the year for us, is the return of the robins , 
we have been on the watch for them these ten days, as they gen- 
erally come between the fifteenth and twenty-first of the month, 
and now most persons you meet, old and young, great and small, 
have something to say about them. No sooner is one of these 
first-comers seen by some member of a family, than the fact is 
proclaimed through the house ; children run in to tell their pa- 
rents, " The robins have come !" Grandfathers and grandmoth- 
ers put on their spectacles and step to the windows to look at the 
robins ; and you hear neighbors gravely inquiring of each other : 
" Have you seen the robins ?" — " Have you heard the robins?" 
There is no other bird whose return is so generally noticed, and 
for several days their movements are watched with no little inter- 
est, as they run about the ground, or perch on the leafless trees. 
It was last night just as the shutters were closed that they were 
heard about the doors, and Ave ran out to listen to their first greet- 
ing, but it was too dark to see them. This morning, however, 
they were found in their native apple-trees, and a hearty welcome 
we gave the honest creatures. 
Thursdmj, 23d. — The snow is going at last ; the country has 
the dappled look belonging -properly to March in this part of the 
