The Rose -Breasted Grosbeak 
By WILLIAM DUTCHER 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 20 
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After a long period of winter, with its bare and brown or snow- 
j covered fields, its frozen streams and its leafless trees, how the lover of 
out-of-doors watches for the first indication of the coming of spring ! 
The vitality that has been dormant, but is beginning to awaken with the 
j lengthening of the days and the increasing power of the sun, is watched 
with growing interest. Every new shade of green that the grassy carpet 
Nest and Eggs of the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 
of the earth assumes is a delight, the first dandelion-blossom that shows 
itself on the lawn is a thing of beauty, the opening of the arbutus and 
of the modest violet increases our joy, the arrival of the advance guard 
of winged hosts that we know will soon follow thrills us with pleasure 
and a desire for the culmination, when every tree in orchard or forest 
will burst forth with blossom and leaf, and every place be vocal with 
music. Then some morning early in May we are greeted with a glory 
of song and the flashing beauty of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. 
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