The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-03-21
ougllly appreciated by The memDe
of both political parties.
SurinQtime in Washinuton

w hit GODEito5 10 any HIIIEil-
ing away from the capital. spring IS
marching into it. The lawmakers are
leaving just as the Capital City is put
ting on the best dress which nature
has put into its wardrobe.
One who has lived in the country
and has something of a heart knowl-
edge of the places where the willows
grow, where the marsh blackbirds
nest. and where the yesper sparrow
sings, confesses to a liking for the
spring and its Accomplishments, even
though he be no poet.
Washington is sort of half city and
half country, and the people here, I'M
like those in other great cities Of the
country. have some real sense of the
toys of country life. The great parks
of the city are filed with birds, cult
waited flowers are at the doorstep, and
wild flowers of all kinds are just be
yond the doorstep. Washington's
spring is alluring.
For years In this town the writer
has kept a sort of calendar Of the
easons The soft NAPLES which are
abundant in and about Washington
have shown for 20 years a first REDEEM
ing of their buds On some day be-
tween February s and February Is.
These are the first real signs of spring
in Washington except for the fact that
If the purple grackle, commonly
known as the crow blaekblrd, has left
the city at all during the winter, 1t is
likely to return TO its favorite parks
about the first week in February.
Song Sparrows Come Early.
For three years in succession a song
sparrow has appeared on February Ia
in a little clump of bushes just out
side the house wing of the capitol.
This bird stays in Washington all win
ter. but he turks under bushes along
the great river and only occasionally
breaks into song. st. Valentines day
has been chosen for three years GER
tainly by one song sparrow take it
for granted, although l know nothing
about it. that 1t is the same bird-to
take perch on the top of a bush in the
capitol grounds and to sing through
| tHe HOuTS Ills "CtIOIlC ~ iAC SCaoOA
which is at hand.
John Burroughs, the great natural
list who died about a year ago, studied
the bird life in the spring in Wash
ington, not only to his W satisfac-
ton and joy. but unquestionably to
the satisfaction and JOY of many hun
bred thousands Of American readers.
! In his spring notes at the capital Bur
roughs calls particular attention to
the purple grackle or crow ~blackbird,
which, in the year Of his writing Il
think it was in 1860 "stalked
across the treasury lawn" These
purple grackles, Respondent in the
color of Tyre, still are stalking across
the somewhat limited lawn space of
the Treasury building. The sheen of
their feathers as the sun strikes them
is like the sheen on the spears of
the w~ell-known Assyrians in the we'll
known poem.
The cardinals, commonly called the
redbirds, stay in Washington all win
ter, but just as congress leaves in
March they come forth from their hid
ing places in the underhrush along the
river TO appear in the parks. There
probably is no direct connection be
tween the appearance of the birds and
the disappearance of congress, but un.
less there is a long session, or an
extra session In the year when con
gress must close on March 4, the law.
makers lose the chance to look upon
the lordly cardinal as he shines redly
in the trees and whistles with a boys
cheerfulness TO the world.
Fish Crows at White House.
Washington has a crow hat is not
the common corn crow of America. Il
is called the fish crow. 1t is about
two-thirds the size of the bird that
the farmers ordinarily look upon as the
foe of the cornfields, and 1t has a
voice which, to put it politely, is much
less musical than that of its bigger
brother known to the scientists as
| Corvus Americans.
About four or five pairs of fish
crows nest each year in the big trees
in the White House grounds. Now,
these birds which for some reason or
other bear a Latin name which In
English is rendered as bone-breaker,
have a must peculiar habit. They do
not nest until the leaves come upon
the trees late in April, but they visit
the nests of the former year as early
as March first and poke about in them,
apparently trying to make up their
minds how much patching and mend
ing will be necessary to make the old
house good for another season.
OF course nobody knows definitely
why the fish crows come back to look
over the old nests so early, or, If the
old nests have been destroyed. to look
over the old nesting places, but 1t is
a curious fact that daily through the
month of March and through the first
half of April the birds are plugging
about their last year homes and are
thinking of something which man
knoweth not.