I live in a lonesome country, but it is very beautiful in the summer. We have nice lakes and woods, and all kinds of birds. There is a little bird which builds such a queer nest. It is like a hanging cup, and so small you scarcely notice it. There are five white eggs, with black spots on the ends, in it. The bird is blackish color, with a round white spot in the middle of each wing. There is a bird here called grosbeak. It is very handsome, and a splendid singer. You can hear its clear note in the morning above all the rest. My sister Julia found a nest, and took out a male bird. It had hardly any feathers. She brought it up on bread and milk, and it was so tame it would sit on her finger; but one morning it flew away, and never came back. Perhaps some of the readers of YOUNG PEOPLE have tamed the little yellow-birds. Julia tamed one, and it was a great pet. I have a pet dove named Philip. He will follow me about in the woods. When he misses me, he hunts till he finds me. When we are eating dinner, if the door is open, I often hear a pat-pat on the step, and in comes Philip, nodding his head from side to side, and lights on my shoulder, for me to give him his dinner. He is now two years old. I will send you his portrait. I think Bertie Brown drew a first-rate picture. ALLIE VOORHEES. * * * * * TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN. The first hepaticas (liverwort) that I saw this year were picked the first day of March. Has any one living in the same latitude found them earlier? The arbutus is nearly in bloom. When we were out in the woods the other day we saw a beautiful gray fox. MABEL BATES. * * * * * COLLEGE GROVE, TENNESSEE, _March 1, 1880_. I send you a violet, and also the earliest wild flower of this section, _Erigenia_, or "daughter of the early spring" [a species of groundsel]. We have had crocuses and daffodils ever since Christmas. I have lots of pets. We have nine cats. One is fourteen years old. And we have a shepherd dog that has a great deal of sense. I have three white hens--one top-knot, one plain, and one with pantalets. I have a chicken grave-yard, and we have funerals. The red and blue birds, wrens, jays, and woodpeckers, staid with us all winter. I found a nest of hatched partridge eggs, and the large ends were all picked round even, and opened like box-tops. We live in the woods, and I see many pretty things. ANNA RUCKER. * * * * *