. Birds and nature . ral other warblers. Themales sing frequently from their perchon the topmost twig of a spruce tree,thus misleading one as to the where-abouts of the female and nest. Thesong resembles somewhat that of theblack and white warbler, but is ratherless wiry. It cannot be represented onpaper. The tongue of this bird is worthy ofspecial notice. It is cleft at the tip,and is provided with somewhat of afringe. This character is not peculiarto this species, but is found in somehoney creepers and in at least one for-eign family of birds, thus suggesting, atleast, the relationship of th
. Birds and nature . ral other warblers. Themales sing frequently from their perchon the topmost twig of a spruce tree,thus misleading one as to the where-abouts of the female and nest. Thesong resembles somewhat that of theblack and white warbler, but is ratherless wiry. It cannot be represented onpaper. The tongue of this bird is worthy ofspecial notice. It is cleft at the tip,and is provided with somewhat of afringe. This character is not peculiarto this species, but is found in somehoney creepers and in at least one for-eign family of birds, thus suggesting, atleast, the relationship of the warblersas a group. It might be asked, what isthe significance of this character asregards feeding-habits? Apparentlynothing, since the feeding-habits andfood do not differ from those of otherwarblers not having the cleft tongue asgreatly as the tongues themselves dif-fer in structure. It is apparently anaberrant character developed some-what at random among groups nearlyrelated, or perhaps a remnant of FROM COL. CHI. ACAO. SCIENCES. CAPE MAY COPTRIGHT 1899,NATURE STUDY PUB. CHICAGO. SNOWFLAKES. Falling all the nig-ht-time,Falling- all the day,Silent into the far-away; Stilly host unnumbered,All the nig-ht and dayFalling, falling-, the far-away,— Never came like g-loryTo the fields and summer blossomsThick and white as these. To the dear old placesWinging nig-ht and , follow, follow,Fold them soft away; Folding, folding, folding,Fold the world of flowers driftingDown the winter day. —John Vance Cheney. A TIMELY WARNING. WHILE a British brig was glidingsmoothly along before a goodbreeze in the South Pacific, aflock of small birds about thesize, shape, and color of paroquets set-tled down in the rigging and passed anhour or more resting. The secondmate was so anxious to find out thespecies to which the visiting strangersbelonged that he tried to entrap a spec-imen, but the birds
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