EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 31 
water or with ice where the snow is washed off, 
has shone in the sun as it does only at the 
approach of spring, methinks, and are not the 
frosts in the morning more like the early frosts 
in the fall, — common white frosts ? As for the 
birds of the past winter, I have seen but three 
hawks, one early in the winter, two lately; have 
heard the hooting owl pretty often late in the 
afternoon. Crows have not been numerous, but 
their cawing was heard chiefly in the pleasanter 
mornings. Blue jays have blown the trumpet 
of winter as usual, but they, as all birds, are 
most lively in spring-like days. The chickadees 
have been the prevailing bird. The partridge 
common enough. One ditcher tells me that he 
saw two robins in Moore’s swamp a month ago. 
I have not seen a quail, though a few have been 
killed in the thaws, — four or five downy wood¬ 
peckers. The white-breasted nuthatch four or 
five times. Tree sparrows, one or more at a 
time, oftener than any bird that comes to us 
from the north. Two pigeon-woodpeckers, I 
think, lately. One dead shrike and perhaps 
one or two live ones. Have heard of two 
white owls, one about Thanksgiving time and 
one in midwinter; one short-eared owl in De¬ 
cember, several flocks of snow buntings in the 
severest storm in the last part of December; 
one grebe in Walden, just before it froze com- 
