“These belong to the first half of the month:— _The Great Blue Heron._ Cousin to the white Egret; we always used to have a pair of them by the upper mill-pond. _The Purple Finch._ A large sparrow with a beautiful voice; the fully grown male having a rosy flush to his feathers as if, it has been said, the juice of crimson berries had been squeezed over him. _The Vesper-sparrow._ The wayside Sparrow of our afternoon walk that we have known as long as the Song Sparrow and Bluebird; famous for his clear, ringing song at twilight and dawn. Rather light in color, with _rust-red wing-markings and white outside tail-feathers_ that show conspicuously as he flits along and tells his name. THE VESPER-SPARROW It comes from childhood land, Where summer days are long And summer eves are bland— A lulling good-night song. Upon a pasture stone, Against the fading west, A small bird sings alone, Then dives and finds its nest. The evening star has heard And flutters into sight. Oh, childhood’s vesper bird, My heart calls back good night. —Edith M. Thomas. _The Chipping-sparrow._ Our least Sparrow, who wears a little chestnut velvet cap, gray back, and black bill, and has a mild, innocent expression in keeping with his friendly ways. He puts his dainty hair-lined nest (from which he is sometimes called Hair-bird) in a near-by shrub or rose-bush in the garden, and then hops about the door, picking up almost invisible bits of food, calling “chip-chip-chip.” His courting song is a long trill that begins at dawn almost with the Phœbe, and the dear little bird often sings as he sits on the ground. _The Tree Swallow._ This we saw last fall in the migration, and we may hope that it will take lodging in some of the new bird-boxes. “In the second half of the month:— _The Barn Swallow._ _Spotted Sandpiper._ _Bank Swallow._ _Purple Martin._ _Whip-poor-will._ One of the birds of the air that, together with its brother the Nighthawk and its cousins the Chimney Swift and Humming-bird, may well be called winged mysteries. _Towhee-Chewink, or Ground-robin_, of the tribe of Sparrows and Finches, but, like the Cardinal, without stripes, and having a stout beak. Head, throat, back, and breast black; white belly and rust-red sides. Black tail with white outer feathers. A handsome, vigorous bird and a lover of bushes and thickets, where he scratches among the leaves. Call-note, “Tow-hee-tow-hee.” _Black-and-white Warbler._ This you will at first take to be a small Woodpecker from its black-and-white stripes and tree-creeping habits that remind one of the Brown Creeper of winter, but its slender bill names it a warbler; one of the “lispers,” who, though they have musical names, whisper or lisp a few notes as if to themselves.