“My friends, the reports have now all been made. We have heard many pleasant things, and many things which make us sad. I think, however, that each one has found some cause for thanksgiving, even though his life is hard and filled with danger. All of us have learned that there are troubles and difficulties in the lives of others, many of which do not afflict us, and for this we should be duly thankful. From lions to lizards is a long step in the animal world, but there is a chain of common experience all the way through, binding us together. “Let us remember through all the year to come, that there is no life without trial and privation, without hope and blessing, without cause for thanksgiving. Let us sympathize more with one another, think less of our own trials, and look oftener at the bright spots that come into our lives. “The Thanksgiving Assembly for the year Nineteen Hundred and One is now adjourned.” Mary McCrae Culter. Wildly round our woodland quarters, Sad-voiced Autumn grieves; Thickly down these swelling waters Float his fallen leaves. Through the tall and naked timber, Column-like and old, Gleam the sunsets of November, From their skies of gold. O’er us, to the southland heading, Screams the gray wild-goose; On the night-frost sounds the treading Of the brindled moose. Noiseless creeping, while we’re sleeping, Frost his task-work plies; Soon, his icy bridges heaping, Shall our log-piles rise. —John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Lumberman.” [Illustration: BLACK-POLL WARBLER. (Dendroica striata.) Life-size. FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES. CHICAGO COLORTYPE CO.] THE BLACK-POLL WARBLER. (_Dendroica striata._) Warbler, why speed thy southern flight? Ah, why, Thou, too, whose song first told us of the spring, Whither away? —Edmund Clarence Stedman. Few birds have a wider and more extended range than the Black-poll Warbler. Wintering in the southern United States, Central America and the northern part of South America, they move northward in the spring, reaching Greenland and Alaska in June. Their range extends to the westward as far as the Rocky Mountains. Their breeding range is nearly confined to the regions north of the United States. This little bird which travels so extensively is a little later than many of the warblers in arriving at its summer home, but it seems to waste little time on the journey, as it flies rapidly and stops but little to search for food. These words of the poet, “And warblers, full of life and song— All moving swiftly on their way,” truthfully illustrate the flight of the Black-poll in its spring migration.