BIRDS. Illustrated by COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. VOL. III. MARCH, 1898. NO. 3. CONTENTS Page SOME BIRD LOVERS. 81 BIRD DAY. 82 MARCH. 82 THE BIRD'S ANSWER. 83 WHERE MISSOURI BIRDS SPEND CHRISTMAS. 84 THE BLACK DUCK. 87 THE STORMY PETREL. 88 WILSON'S PETREL. 91 THE STORMY PETREL. 92 THE BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER. 95 THE AMERICAN COOT. 96 THE AMERICAN COOT. 99 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BIRDS. 100 THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 101 THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 102 THE SPARROW HAWK. 105 THE AMERICAN SPARROW HAWK. 106 HINTS ON THE STUDY OF WINTER BIRDS. 109 THE SILVER PHEASANT. 110 EIDER DUCK FARMS 113 THE SCALED PARTRIDGE. 114 THE MOUND BIRD. 114 THE NEW TENANTS. 117 SUMMARY. 120 SOME BIRD LOVERS. The happiness that is added to human lives by love for the lower creatures is beyond telling. Ernest von Vogelweide, the great German lyric poet of the middle ages, so loved the birds that he left a large bequest to the monks of Wurtzburg on condition that they should feed the birds every day on the tomb-stone over his grave. Of St. Francis of Assisi's love and tenderness for birds and animals many beautiful stories have been told. The former he particularly loved, and 'tis related they were wont to fly to him, while he talked to, and blessed them. From the hands of a cruel boy he once rescued a pigeon, emblem of innocence and purity, made a nest for it, and watched over it and its young.