Bless me, what a rush and bustle, As the happy hours speed by! Chatter, chatter--chatter, chitter, Underneath the azure sky. Laughs the brook to hear the clamor; Chirps the Sparrow, gay and brown "Welcome! Welcome, everybody! Jolly place, this Squirrel Town." Honey-bees the fields are roaming; Daisies nod and lilies blow; Soon Jack Frost--the saucy fellow-- Hurrying, will come, I know. Crimson leaves will light the woodland; And the nuts come pattering down. Winter store they all must gather-- Busy place, then, Squirrel Town. Blowing, blustering, sweeps the north wind-- See! the snow is flying fast. Hushed the brook and hushed the Sparrow, For the summer time is past. Yet these merry little fellows Do not fear old Winter's frown; Snug in hollow trees they're hiding. Quiet place is Squirrel Town. --ALIX THORN. BIRDS AND ALL NATURE. ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. VOL. IV. JULY, 1898. NO. 1. [Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. WILSON'S SNIPE. 7/9 Life-size. Copyright by Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.] WILSON'S SNIPE. Wilson's Snipe, otherwise known as the English Snipe, Jacksnipe, and Guttersnipe, and which is one of our best known game birds, has a very extended range; indeed, covering the whole of North America, and migrating south in the winter to the West Indies and northern South America. Its long, compressed, flattened, and slightly expanded bill gives it an odd appearance, and renders it easily recognizable. From March till September the peculiar and cheerful "_cheep_" of the Snipe may be heard in the larger city parks where there are small lakes and open moist grounds, and where it can feed and probe with its long, soft, sensitive, pointed bill in the thin mud and soft earth for worms, larvae, and the tender roots of plants. In some localities in the Southern states, during the winter months, thousands of Snipe are killed on the marshes where they collect on some especially good feeding ground. We have rarely seen more than two together, as they are not social, moving about either alone or in pairs. Its movements on the ground are graceful and easy, and, while feeding, the tail is carried partly erect, the head downward, the bill barely clearing the ground. We recently watched one through an opera glass, but the frequency of its changes from point to point and the rapidity of its flight discouraged long observation. The flight is swift, and, at the start, in a zigzag manner. Sportsmen say it is a most difficult bird to shoot, requiring a quick eye and a snap shot to bag four out of five. Col. Goss said that he always had the best success when the birds were suddenly flushed, in shooting the instant its startled "_scaipe_"