BIRDS AND NATURE. ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. Vol. IX. APRIL, 1901. No. 4 CONTENTS. APRIL. 145 I come, like a hope to a gloomy breast 145 THE CURASSOW. 146 SOME NOTABLE NESTS. 149 THE BLACKBIRD’S SONG. 151 A GOLDEN EAGLE. 152 THE HARLEQUIN DUCK. (_Histrionicus histrionicus._) 155 AN ORCHARD BIRD-WAY. 156 THE CANADA GROUSE. (_Dendragapus canadensis._) 158 DO PLANTS HAVE INSTINCT. 162 Still winter holds the frozen ground and fast the streams with ice are bound 164 THE DOVEKIE. (_Alle alle._) 167 As flying ever westward Night’s shadows swiftly glide 167 THE SONG SPARROW’S APPEAL. 168 THE WITCH IN THE CREAM. A TRUE STORY. 169 THE BEAVER. 170 PAU-PUK-KEEWIS AND THE BEAVERS. 174 What rosy pearls, bright zoned or striped! 175 SNAILS OF THE OCEAN. 176 THE LEMON. 182 TWO WRENS. 185 WHEN SPRING COMES. 188 CUBEBS. (_Piper cubeba L._) 191 A TREE-TOP TOWN. 192 APRIL. No days such honored days as these! While yet Fair Aphrodite reigned, men seeking wide For some fair thing which should forever bide On earth, her beauteous memory to set In fitting frame that no age could forget, Her name in lovely April’s name did hide, And leave it there, eternally allied To all the fairest flowers Spring did beget. And when fair Aphrodite passed from earth, Her shrines forgotten and her feasts of mirth, A holier symbol still in seal and sign, Sweet April took, of kingdom most divine, When Christ ascended, in the time of birth Of spring anemones, in Palestine. —Helen Hunt Jackson.