Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1910-04-22

for The nonors of earlness n umenness but the latter does not come
around II homes and so anoint us with the oil Of optimism; and he cannot
more than muical-he is operate, hktrionic, nay, inrocenuy bacchananan
in thu prodgalty of his ecstasy. He is more than a promise and a prophecy;
he is the first fruit of itself which the spring zur has thrown down to
the earth.
Blackbirds Stay Close.
None Of the blackbrds 6 o very ar south. Brewers backbird is .
native ofou u plains region, and winters all over Mexico, tut u common
purple grackle and the cowbrd stop in the Southern States. They all
If they would ure the season on When they reach n approach heir sum.
mr homes all species ma mount the tall treetops in great mixed focks
and sing n concert OIL diseord, as the case may be; but on the whole the
medley is on of the peasantest OF spring sounds. 1t may be Jared by the
wheelbarrow screak of the cowbrd, but the suggestion Of grazing COWS and
golden dandeions is eVn in that.
More lowly is the passing of the boboHnk, a branch o. the same tribe
another bird that changes habit and form with change of habitat. The
males now are again in splendid nupttal plumage, and manifest as they pass
that contagious happiness so apuy described by Wilson Flagg Bryant and
Irving. No other nation has such a bird. His melody is more delightfully."-
instrumental than anything We have. 1t is the melody of the wan refined.
the wrens var much among each other in their winter habuats. The North
en wren usually seems to think that he has gone fr south if he goes from
Minnesota to Missouri, though he may & IS far as the gulf. The Carolina
wren scarcely moves at all during the season, may sing at IN time.
The Brown Thrasher.
The brown thrasher is 10 claseda as of the wren forms, n not of the
thrush forms. His arrival is always announced during the first bright hour
after he comes. His journey is a musical one. and ever in the Southern
States, where h e winters, his singing is frequent. He is a bird of the spring
purely in the matter of song, but az a berry eater he stays with the crop
early and late. The harm of domestichy and appropriate timeliness is
that of the phoebe. He comes at just the right hour and whistles at about
the proper spot Above the rompng places in the haymow, under the cool
are not the years, away down to the wee small ones, punctuated with the
dip of his tail? In his combination Of ibihnce and giggle there is limited
everything which the boy expects the spring to bring, and to the mar all
tina the years la brought. He and his tribe off ycatchers must go far
enough south to find flying things tn seasont through. Some of them go to
Central America, while others may subsist in Florida and thereabout.
The humming bird goes far south to visit the many other species of his
ing corronas. He may b e seen battling with the bumblebees on the edge of
the gulf in early March, as each srove to get the first morning dip into
the wistaria cups. All the swallows winter south oft the United States. OF
coursea n occasional stays nearer and drifts up ahead of his fellows
but lie does not make the summer IS the proverb goes.
No matter whence the bird comes to u.s., no matter whether W. note his
color or fight-even if he be merely like Tennysons lark, "a sghtess song
he may be u comfort; and the earlier he comes the better.