IN APRIL DAYS 
March, with its roaring winds, its snow squalls, 
its freezing nights and its cloudy days, has gone 
for the year. Enter April with gentle showers, 
springing grass, first flowers, and early birds. 
Now we may hear the twitter of the building 
bluebird, and the sweet, clear song of the 
meadowlark, as he interrupts his awkard strad¬ 
dling over the meadow, and from the ground or 
from the top of some fence post sounds his mel¬ 
low whistle. The phoebe has built her little 
nest, and frogs and turtles are making their 
appearance. 
In States where. the law permits the spring 
shooting of snipe the gunner with or without 
his dog may now be seen traveling from one wet 
place to another striving to flush the infrequent 
snipe. In old times, even in southern New 
England, one could start a dozen or fifteen birds 
in a day, but not now. It is the snipe shooter 
who is likely to find on the rising ground near 
the wet meadows where snipe should be, the 
bloodroot, which a little later is showy with 
beautiful white flowers. Soon hepatica, ane¬ 
mones and bluetts will all be in blossom, and a 
little later, along the margin of the brook or 
even in the wet alder swamps, will shine the 
golden clusters of the marsh marigold, backed 
by great leaves of deepest green. Early in the 
month are seen in shaded woods and along brushy 
highroads and in dry places in the swamp the 
young shoots of ferns, which a little later will 
unroll themselves and spread over much ground. 
These green shoots are edible—to be eaten by 
birds and men alike. The red blooms of the 
soft maples cast a ruddy glow over the tangle 
of gray twigs in the swamp, and the flowers of 
the shadblow will soon shine white among the 
springing green. People talk about May as the 
month of flowers, but there is no better time 
to look for them than late April. 
Now come the warm rains which bring close 
to the surface of the ground the earth worms that 
all winter long have lain buried deep in the soil 
below the reach of frost, and following the earth 
worms comes their enemy the mole, whose raised 
tunnels may be seen passing here and there over 
the meadow. Hated though he is by the gar¬ 
dener, and by him whose duty it is to keep lawns 
smooth, even and well cut, the mole does good 
work by destroying many a noxious insect. Yet 
we may doubt if the earth worm is one of 
these. 
If you leave the fields and open country and 
push into the woods you will find the squirrels 
active; grays and reds and chipmunks are all 
busy now. The grays seem to spend much of 
their time hunting for nuts hidden last autumn 
and now forgotten, but both grays and reds at 
this season are likely to cut the buds from the 
deciduous trees. The chipmunks perform a ser¬ 
vice in the destruction of insects and grubs, 
while the red squirrel has a villainous reputa¬ 
tion for robbing birds’ nests of eggs and young, 
and the gray squirrel himself is not always above 
suspicion. 
In the woods, too, you will hear the rattle of 
the woodpecker, hairy and downy alike, and some¬ 
times the redhead. How much they seem at this 
season to enjoy getting on a hard dead limb and 
beating the long roll. In the wood now are 
often heard the harsh cries of redtail and of 
red-shouldered hawks. We know a certain piece 
of woods where the red-shouldered hawks have 
bred now for more than thirty years. Last year 
the nest was robbed of three beautiful eggs, but 
two or three weeks later another nest was oc¬ 
cupied, and weekly visits to it showed that the 
young were hatched and successfully reared. 
With tumultuous cawings crows are now fly¬ 
ing by twos and threes over the fields and 
through the woods, striving to settle the diffi¬ 
culties of courtship which trouble the whole 
world at this particular season. But let no one 
suppose that because of this occupation their 
usually keen powers of observation are blunted 
or confused. If you hide yourself to try to get 
a shot at them, you will learn after long wait¬ 
ing that in spring the crow is as cunning as at 
any other season of the year. 
Once in a while in the early spring days one 
may see pairs of sparrow hawks flying swiftly 
about, hawking through the air like so many 
swallows or like English snipe. They, too, are 
mating. , 
As you go along the brook, gathering the 
flowers and stems of the caltha—for you must 
know that this plant makes most excellent greens 
—from time to time you will startle a trout from 
its hiding place under the bank, or from the 
white gravel in the middle of the brook. A 
lightning flash is hardly quicker than its dart to 
a place of concealment. It may take refuge 
under the bank or behind a stone, or may simply 
stop over a little patch of soft black muck and 
sinking down into it become invisible. How should 
the trout know that we, whose shadows look 
like those of ruthless fishermen, are really their 
good friends, and have no desire to drag them 
out on the bank. All the world over where man 
is known the same thing takes place; the wild 
creatures fear him. His reputation is evil. It 
is only an Alexander Selkirk or other victim of 
shipwreck on some desert island, who finds the 
wild birds so tame that they permit him to mingle 
with them. Dr. Walter Fisher, on his visit to 
Laysan, had such an experience, but it comCs to 
only a few men. Yet indeed it might come to 
many, for we know that in the Yellowstone Park 
the animals become very tame. 
This is truly the season of migrating birds. 
Of the winter birds not a few are still with us, 
juncoes or blue snowbirds, woodpeckers, titmice, 
jays and many others; but the robins have come, 
as have also the earliest of the warblers, the 
pine creeping, the yellowrump, and a few ot 
Robins fairly crowd the lawns, and the males 
about in a peculiarly arrogant fashion, 
would think that they owned the farm at 
if not the county in which the farm is situ 
Now they have ferocious combats and ( 
each other about as if there were going t 
great battles, with many killed and wounded 
really not a feather is lost. 
Now, too, the birds’ songs begin, and nov 
earliest of the birds prepare to build their i 
After the site has been chosen, but before 
building has actually begun, the birds 
show great alarm and uneasiness if the pla 
approached. Usually, however, until after 
eggs are laid, they register their protests 
afar. 
The full chorus of bird song will not 
for a month or two later. But it is pleasa 
hear the evening song of the robin, whic 
darkness grows, gives place to the night 
of the woodcock. 
The warm days of April bring out fror 
winter home the useful but not beautiful 
If you can do so, forget that he is so ho 
and consider rather that he bears a jewel i 
head, and that he is most destructive to all 
of injurious insects. No doubt if they gave 
a chance he would as readily destroy honey 
as more harmful creatures, but he does not 
do this. It is a useful thing, we believ 
have half a dozen toads living under the 
steps of the house, and certainly it is int 
ing after the sun has gone down and as the 
grows to see one after another of them ho 
from some unexpected hole and start off c 
nightly foraging. 
On sunny days you may find in a warm 
corner or on a fallen tree trunk in the w 
or on a loose board by the fence, a snake 
up absorbing the grateful warmth and limt 
up after his long sleep. Do not disturb 
Sit down, if you please, at a little distano 
associate with him, smoking a pipe the 
If you watch him you will see about him mt 
admire. Alas, the Biblical precept it too 
ingrained in the minds of most of us an 
temptation to kill a snake is strong, and 1 
to be overcome. Yet overcome the tempi 
If the snakes now and then destroy the egg 
young of some useful birds, they are bu 
the long summer killing insects and mice, 
are harmless to man, for venomous snake 
rarely seen in these latter days. 
Among the men and women who go ; 
at this delightful season, the angler holds, 
place. He is crazy to get his flies on the 
but after the keen excitement of the firs 
abroad has worn off, he sees other things t 
the brook and his flies and the gamy trou 
takes pleasure in the natural and beautiful 
that surround him. 
