BY THE WAY BIDE 
75 
Too well we love your tiny form 
To rob your life of charm. 
Ivy Carpenter Fisher. 
'The following verses will be of some help 
in making out the school program for Arbor 
and Bird Day. which will soon be appointed 
by the governor. 
BIRD AND ARBOR DAY. 
(Air—“Lightly Row.”) 
Spring birds come, spring birds come, 
From the sunny southland, come, 
Glad we’ll be when we see 
Birdies on the tree. 
In th'e warm bright days of spring, 
Then so joyously you sing, 
Light and gay, all the day. 
Flitting on your way. 
Gayly sing, gayly sing, 
Happiness to all you bring. 
Merrily, in your glee 
living light and free. 
Sweetest little trill and song. 
Strains so sweet, you repeat. 
Springtime friends you greet. 
BIRD NOTES. 
(Air —“Flowers That Bloom in the Spring.”) 
The robins that come in the spring, tra la, 
Bring promise of gay summer time, 
On merrily fluttering wing, tra la 
So happy and blithfully sing, tra la 
Of a summer with' bright sunny skies, tra la 
Of a summer with azure blue skies, 
O, that’s what we mean when we say that a 
thing 
Is welcome as robins that come in the spring, 
0, flying merrily, singing cheerily, 
Robins that come in the spring. 
Flora E. Kendall. 
In the March number of this paper there 
was a misprint in the title of the list of birds 
on the last page. The title should have read 
Birds seen since Jan. 1st, 1904. 
EARLY CATKINS. 
(By Georgina Frazer Newhall, in the Inter 
Ocean.) 
Then saffern swarns swing off from all the 
willers, 
So plump they look like valler caterpillars. 
—J. R. Lowell. 
This is to be a great month’ for “coming out” 
parties; I mean, the coming out of “buds.” 
For instance, the Pussy Willows and the Pop¬ 
lars will present whole families. It is a sea¬ 
son of interest to at least half the world wlv. n 
the Pussy Willows are out, for, despite many 
other signs of spring, it is upon these blossom:-' 
that popular attention centers, especially wlv n 
they are at their most kitten-like stage. 
Whencethey come or whither they go after this 
delightful period of their existence are ques¬ 
tions which do not suggest themselves to the 
average observer. 
It may be news to manv that as far back as 
last August one might have found the very 
beginning of these demure little flowers. 
Even then, had one taken a needle and forced 
open the wrappers in which’ Dame Nature 
had enfolded them, a pocket microscope 
would have revealed the wee pussies, each 
ready with its stamens or pistils securely 
packed, awaiting the time when the mother 
tree should have discarded her leaves and been 
ready to give her attention to the new family. 
Winds blew and rocked the small pussies, 
"hosts of flowers floated bv. rains lashed, and 
frosts teased them; but through it all they 
flourished, swelling by slow and invisible 
growth, until, with the first hint of spring, 
they burst their leathery jackets and 
emerged, the “pussy willows” of delighted 
childhood. 
But one may not be kittenish long, even 
though one be a Pussy Willow. There is al¬ 
ways the business of life; .and soon the Wil¬ 
lows are decked in their silvery green or gold¬ 
en catkins, the former being an arrangement 
of pistils partly covered by fringed scales, 
while the latter contain th’e mate or staminate 
flowers, whose yellow pollen is carried by the 
wind and insect to the waiting pistils of the 
female flowers and thus fertilization is ac¬ 
complished. 
Later when the woods are green, some of 
the Willows will again be furry, for the wee 
pods of the silvery catkins will open and set 
free their minute and multitudinous seed pro¬ 
geny, each provided with a little tuft of wool 
that may be used as a swing with which to 
fly, a boat on which to float, or a pillow upon 
which to fall. Willows, you see, have a far 
more adventurous life than we might expect 
from their very sleek aspect in the days of 
kittenhood. 
