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 
