. Wild life of orchard and field;. ination on grakles is ad-visable—it would be distinctly unwise. These birds winter in immense numbers in thelower parts of Virginia, North and South Caro-lina, and Georgia, sometimes forming one con-gregated multitude of several hundred one occasion Wilson met, on the banks of theRoanoke, on the 20th of January, one of theseprodigious armies of crow-blackbirds. They arose,he states, from the surrounding fields with a noiselike thunder, and, descending on the length of theroad before him, they covered it and the fencescompletely with black; when t
. Wild life of orchard and field;. ination on grakles is ad-visable—it would be distinctly unwise. These birds winter in immense numbers in thelower parts of Virginia, North and South Caro-lina, and Georgia, sometimes forming one con-gregated multitude of several hundred one occasion Wilson met, on the banks of theRoanoke, on the 20th of January, one of theseprodigious armies of crow-blackbirds. They arose,he states, from the surrounding fields with a noiselike thunder, and, descending on the length of theroad before him, they covered it and the fencescompletely with black; when they again rose, andafter a few evolutions descended on the skirts ofthe high-timbered woods, they produced a mostsingular and striking effect. Whole trees, for aconsiderable extent, from the top to the lowestbranches, seemed as if hung with mourning. Theirnotes and screaming, he adds, seemed all the whilelike the distant sounds of a great cataract, but ina musical cadence. • WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD VIII THE SOKG-SPARROW. HE American song-sparrow is apeculiar lover of old fields whereNature is fast reasserting herselfafter the temporary Tule of tumble-down, lichen-patch-ed stone fences; the gray cattle-paths diverging from the muddybar-way to those parts of thepasture where the grass is sweet-est ; the weedy banks of the slug-gish brook winding indolentlyamong mossy bowlders and tan-gled thickets and patches of fra-grant herbage—are all congenialto it, and are its chosen it is so common throughoutmost of the United States that144 WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD you may find it almost anjnvhere—skulking aboutthe currant and raspberry bushes in the villagegardens; taking a riotous bath in some pool bythe road-side, about whose rim, perhaps, the icestill lingers; hastening to the top of a forest treeto plume its dripping feathers and shake off atonce crystal water and a crystal song. Our favorite is the very first bird to greet us inthe spring—in
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectanimalb, bookyear1902
