FOREST AND STREAM 
411 
Here Come The Birds 
Forest and Stream’s Readers Far and Near Report the Advent of the Heralds of Spring 
BIRDS IN VERMONT. 
Wells River, Vt., March 21, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
On March 8, a flock of about thirteen Prairie 
Horned Larks were seen at Danville, Vt. They 
are summer residents and have a song like a 
young canary. They are a sub-species of the 
Horned Lark and are smaller and with a white 
line over the eye instead of yellow; the throat 
and forehead is white. A flock of five Shore 
Larks were seen at Concord, Vt., March 10. They 
are a winter visitant, resident of the North Atlan¬ 
tic Coast and breed in Labrador and about Hud¬ 
son Bay, Reed says; but I have known of a nest 
being found in Ryegate, Vt., very early, before 
the snow was all gone. On March 10, a flock of 
white winged Crossbills were seen at Danville, 
Vt. These are very rare birds. The color is a 
dull pink, brighter on rump and marked with 
black on the back, underparts whitish; wings and 
tail black, with two white wingbars. 
Their song is a low twittering call, a short, 
flute-like whistle. Breeds from the northern 
parts of the northern tier of states northward, 
and winters in 'the northern half of the United 
States. Their mandibles are crossed at the tips 
and are well adapted for removing seeds from 
the pine cones. The crossbills are very irregu¬ 
lar visitants. They may come to us as winter 
visitants one year, and summer visitants another, 
or they may be transient visitants at any season 
of the year. G. H. M. 
HENDERSONVILLE REPORTS. 
Hendersonville, N. C„ March 6, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream-. 
Winter left us in name, though not in fact, on 
the last day of February. 
March came in like a lion, with the mercury 
down to 10 deg. Several weeks ago the advance 
guard of the robins passed through and were 
gone. I only saw one bird then, but yesterday 
several flocks came, each of from twenty-five to 
fifty birds. 
One flock I found at midday feeding in our 
orchard. Robins are the first of our migratory 
■birds to arrive, and always we have several nest¬ 
ing in the yard. The thrushes and cat birds, with 
others, never come so early. 
A couple of weeks ago a friend told me he 
thought he, or a friend of his had a wild (pas¬ 
senger) pigeon caged, taken from a flock in the 
neighborhood, and asked me if I should know the 
wild pigeons if I saw them. I replied I could, 
and in days gone by had shot quite a number of 
them. Then I asked the color of the bird’s eye 
they had caged—was it red? 
He kindly showed me a letter from a friend of 
his who pronounced it a hand tail pigeon. I told 
him I never heard of that bird as being east of 
the Rockies. 
However, we would go and have a look at it. 
It was a disappointment to us both when I saw 
it. The bird was the mourning dove. These 
birds I have shot for years and were among the 
first I ever shot. 
During the war between the States I learned to 
shoot as a boy, and killed a lot of these doves. 
Then we could not afford to miss, nor to shoot 
less than two at a shot, because ammunition was 
expensive and hard to get. So I did no wing 
shooting in those days. 
The season for the gun and rifle is over, and 
we begin to look over rods and tackle, and old 
catalogues, and to count the days till we can cast 
the flies over trout in our clear, rushing moun¬ 
tain streams. 
I wish for all true anglers much good sport 
the coming season.—ERNEST L. EWBANK. 
FOOLING THE BLUE BIRDS. 
Baltimore, Md., March 16, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In acordance with your request would say: Up 
to the second week in February we had no win¬ 
ter, and one day in the first week in February the 
mercury “went up” above 80 deg. Whether this 
“fooled” the bluebirds I cannot say, but on Janu¬ 
ary 25 my friend Mr. K. Turnbull reports seeing 
some 30 odd; they were in a flock but appeared 
to be flying in couples as if already paired. A 
friend from Howard county reports a flock of 
about sixty seen during the first week in Febru¬ 
ary. I received a letter from Boston to-day re¬ 
porting the first bluebird this (last) week. 
H. LINDLEY, M. D. 
SPRING AT MILWOOD. 
Milwood, Ill., March 5, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I saw in your last paper that you wished to be 
notified when the first spring birds were seen. I 
saw a robin this morning, March 5. I also saw 
and heard a bluebird. I have seen yellow ham¬ 
mers, but I think those and the robins stayed all 
winter. There is a big loose feathered variety of 
woodpecker around here that stays in the winter, 
but I never see it in the summer. It is about the 
size of the common red head, but has a voice like 
a steam calliope. Nobody around here pays any 
attention to birds but me, and I don't know this 
bird’s name. There are also two smaller kinds of 
woodpeckers that stays here the year round. 
I have been feeding the quail around here this 
winter and have taken one bunch through all 
right so far. Another bunch of twenty-five that 
I have been feeding have been going to a neigh¬ 
bor’s barn, and a big cat killed all but thirteen, 
an unlucky number—for the cat. It was a pet 
cat, but it is fertilizer now. 
Pheasants are thicker than quail in this part of 
the country, but are protected until 1920 Rabbits- 
are very scarce, the foxes and owls as well as the 
hunters having about killed them off. I counted 
the remains of six rabbits in one day. three of 
which had been killed by foxes. The dog foxes 
could be heard any still night in January along 
the hills by the creek, but there are no fox 
hounds in this country, so the foxes live in peace. 
The spring shooting has .stopped my duck and 
snipe shooting, so my hunting is over until the fed 
squirrel season. They are the principal game 
around here. CURTIS MORGAN. 
