HOW SPRING COMES 37 
have felt that monition of spring in the air, and are 
on their way from the Far South to the Far North. 
Flocks of robins and bluebirds appear as by magic, 
then, along with other flocks that have spent the 
winter with us, they vanish, off, no doubt, to build 
their nests in more northern climes. 
The chickadee, the titmouse, the nuthatch, the 
junco, the pine warbler, and many another lovely 
guest that has fed from our porch railing all winter, 
now share with flocks of migrants that remain with 
us a few days at a time. Birds on all sides are ecstat- 
ically singing. What marvelous outpourings come 
from that most joyful of songsters, the Carolina 
wren! Suddenly a new note is heard in the chorus 
that has broken out everywhere, the veery has dis- 
covered the coming of spring. A flock of song spar- 
rows alighting in a budding tree-top all begin to sing 
at once, until it seems as though the tree had sud- 
denly blossomed out in a bouquet of song. New life 
thrills the cardinal bird, who pours forth love-notes 
as he flashes, a streak of fire, through the air. Finches, 
tanagers, creepers, chats, woodpeckers, — birds, 
red, yellow, blue, and green, show like flowers among 
the trees, some to pass on, some to remain with us 
through the summer. 
The peach trees have burst into bloom, and on 
the ground in the woods you find clusters of pink- 
tipped buds and a few white blossoms peeping out 
from the evergreen leaves of the arbutus that car- 
pets the woods In places. This is the beginning of 
a procession of flowers that might bewilder one in a 
