Page:Bird-lore Vol 04.djvu/65

 4.; Bird- Lore

a few Red-winged Blackbirds and Meadowlarks come in at sunset to spend the night: Tree Sparrows frequent the alder thickets: and the extensive beds of cat-tail flags, bent down and matted together by the snow, aﬁord shelter for numerous Song and Swamp Sparrows as well as for one or two Long-billed Marsh Wrens. On mild, calm mornings the Sparrows may be heard chirping to one another from the different covers and late in February the Song Sparrows sing a little in subdued, broken tones, but during most of the period when winter holds full sway the marshes are as silent as they are desolate.

The awakening comes in l\/Iarch when the deeper pools and channels begin to show open water and the snow and ice everywhere are rapidly wasting under the ever increasing strength of the sun‘s rays. The Song Sparrows, Tree Sparrows, Red<winged Blackbirds and Rusty Blackbirds that have passed the winter further south arrive in force at this time, and at morning and evening, before the bluste‘ring northwest wind has risen and after it has lulled for the night, they ﬁll the marsh with their voices. The Red—wings are scattered about, perched conspicuously on the topmost twigs of isolated shrubs or low trees, their sable forms sharply outlined against the light background of water, snow or sky, each bird ﬂashing his scarlet epaulets in the sunlight for an instant, just as he swells his plumage and half opens his wings to utter his rich, guttural Z-ka—l‘ée. The Rusties pass and repass over the open in loose ﬂocks, with undulating ﬂight, or alight in the upper branches of the trees to indulge in one of their rather infrequent out- bursts of [inkling medley-singing before descending to feed on the margin of some shallow pool fringed with button bushes or overhung by willows. The Song Sparrows, although less noticeable than the Blackbirds, by rea< son of their soberer garb and more retiring habits, are also constantly in sight, Hitting from bush to bush or perching on some exposed twig to chant their sweet. earnest songs; but the wild, ringing, rapidly delivered notes of the Tree Sparrows issue, as a rule, from the depths of the thickets where the birds keep closely concealed. These voices, with, perhaps, the tender, plain- tive warble of some passing Bluebird or at evening, towards the close of the month, the merry peeping of Pickering‘s hylas are the characteristic March sounds of the Fresh Pond marshes as well as of many similar places in eastern Massachusetts. How they soothe and refresh the senses after the long silence of winter, breathing to every one of reﬁned sensibilities the very essence of early spring! To those who have long known and loved them they are inexpressibly grateful and precious, touching the chords of memory more subtly than do any other sounds, recalling past associations—albeit often saddened ones, and ﬁlling the heart with renewed courage and hope for the future,

After the 6th or 7th of April the temperature rarely falls below the freezing point and by the 10th or 12th of the month the marshes are usually