de
apart, allowing one to see the happy homeseekers as they arrived in
the spring, their mating, nest-building, the brooding and feeding of
the young, and, after they were full-fledged and strong, to see all
the families of the neighborhood gathering and getting ready to leave
in the fall. Excepting the geese and ducks and pigeons nearly all our
summer birds arrived singly or in small draggled flocks, but when
frost and falling leaves brought their winter homes to mind they
assembled in large flocks on dead or leafless trees by the side of a
meadow or field, perhaps to get acquainted and talk the thing over.
Some species held regular daily meetings for several weeks before
finally setting forth on their long southern journeys. Strange to say,
we never saw them start. Some morning we would find them gone.
Doubtless they migrated in the night time. Comparatively few species
remained all winter, the nuthatch, chickadee, owl, prairie chicken,
quail, and a few stragglers from the main flocks of ducks, jays,
hawks, and bluebirds. Only after the country was settled did either
jays or bluebirds winter with us.

The brave, frost-defying chickadees and nuthatches stayed all the year
wholly independent of farms and man's food and affairs.

With the first hints of spring came the brave little bluebirds,
darling singers as blue as the best sky, and of course we all loved
them. Their rich, crispy warbling is perfectly delightful, soothing
and cheering, sweet and whisperingly low, Nature's fine love touches,
every note going straight home into one's heart. And withal they are
hardy and brave, fearless fighters in defense of home. When we boys
approached their knot-hole nests, the bold little fellows kept
scolding and diving at us and tried to strike us in the face, and
oftentimes we were afraid they would prick our eyes. But the boldness
of the little housekeepers only made us love them the more.

None of the bird people of Wisconsin welcomed us more heartily than
the common robin. Far from showing alarm at the coming of settlers
into their native woods, they reared their young around our gardens as
if they liked us, and how heartily we admired the beauty and fine
manners of these graceful birds and their loud cheery song of _Fear
not, fear not, cheer up, cheer up_. It was easy to love them for they
reminded us of the robin redbreast of Scotland. Like the bluebirds
they dared every danger in defense of home, and we often wondered t