II 
BIRDS OF THE SEASON 
Early messengers of spring are all the more welcome 
through the season's wearying delay. The Robin we 
all know, for the city's vapours have no terrors for 
him. Sometimes he loiters quietly about all winter, 
showing himself occasionally to awaken delusive 
hopes of spring. The noisy, vigorous, and showy 
Jays remain through the winter, gathering food from 
many sources, and sometimes appealing to the kind- 
ness of suburban residents. Woodpeckers never 
desert us, and the Shrikes and Owls we have always 
with us. The hasty Snowbirds seek the open spaces 
in irregular flocks, searching for scattered seeds 
on the black ridges of naked earth. But when the 
timidly confiding Bluebird displays his rich colours 
in the suburban orchards and fields it is a material 
sign that the spirit of spring is in the air, A pair 
found their way to a favoured valley recently, and 
sought out the most tempting southern slope, where 
the high, curving bank tried to concentrate and retain 
the rays of the afternoon sun. There were patches 
of naked earth, where the atmosphere quivered with 
the reviving warmth and blurred the outline of 
the open shrubbery in the close background. The 
