A question which puzzles scientists, is how the turtles and frogs (which have lungs) are able, at the close of summer, to bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of a river or pond and remain there until the following spring. The frogs appear a few days before the turtles are seen.

April Second

The meadowlark's song, "spring-o-the-year," is heard at its best in this month and in May; but the note is one of the few that may be frequently heard in southern New England, during the entire winter. As its name implies, the meadowlark is a bird of the fields and meadows only, but it will often alight in the top of a tall tree and send forth its joyful song. Watch and listen for it now.

April Third

As soon as spring arrives and the ice has left the streams, hordes of May or shad fly nymphs can be found working their way against the current a few inches from the shore. Catch a few of them and put them in a tumbler of water and watch their external or "trachea" gills working. The adult insects are abundant in summer, but at this time of the year (even earlier), the stone flies which flit over the melting snow are often mistaken for May, or shad flies.

Notes

April Fourth

The name "purple finch" is very misleading, for the head, neck, breast, and throat of the bird are more crimson than purple. The female is often mistaken for a sparrow, as her color is dull, and her breast streaked. This finch often takes up its abode in the coniferous trees in the villages. "Its song bursts forth as if from some uncontrollable stress of gladness, and is repeated uninterruptedly over and over again." (Bicknell.)

April Fifth

If the season is not belated, you may expect to find the blood-root peeping through the rocky soil, on exposed brushy hillsides, or along the margins of the woods. You must look for it early, for its petals drop soon after the flower blossoms. The Indians used the blood-red juice which flows when the root is broken, to decorate their bodies.

April Sixth

The brush lots, roadways, and open forests in the Northern States, are now filled with juncoes on the way to their nesting grounds in Canada and the mountainous portions of this country. They are with us but a few weeks and will not be seen again until next fall. The pinkish bill and the two white outer tail-feathers are of great assistance in identifying this bird, for they are very conspicuous when it flies.

Notes

April Seventh

While walking along the bank of a stream you are quite apt to surprise a pair of pickerel lying side by side in shallow water. Save for the vibration of their fins, and the movement of their gills, they do not stir. As you approach they dart off, and you see a roily spot, where they have taken shelter among the aquatic plants.

April Eighth

The birds having white tail-feathers, or tail-feathers that are tipped with white, which show conspicuously when the owners are on the wing, are the meadowlark, vesper sparrow, chewink, snowflake, junco, blue jay, white-breasted nuthatch, Northern shrike, kingbird, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, nighthawk, and whip-poor-will.

April Ninth

The clustering liverwort, hepatica, or squirrel cup, with its fuzzy stems and pretty flowers of various shades of blue, grow side by side with the white wood anemone, or wind-flower. As soon as the wood anemone blossoms, a slight breeze causes the petals to fall; that is why it is called "wind-flower."

Notes

April Tenth

One of the birds that sportsmen have protected by prohibiting spring shooting, is Wilson's snipe, or jacksnipe. Like many of the early migrants it does not nest in the United States; consequently it is only seen in the spring and fall. It is a bird of the marsh and bog, seldom seen except by those who know where and how to find it.

April Eleventh

The gall-flies, or gall-gnats, cut tiny incisions in the oak leaves and golden-rod stems, and lay their eggs between the tissues. These wounds produce large swellings which furnish the larval insects with food. If broken into at this season, one discovers that the galls on the golden-rod stems are pithy. Embedded in the pith is a white "worm," or a small black capsule, but if the "gall" is empty, a hole will be found where the fly emerged.

April Twelfth

The red-shouldered hawk is one of our common birds of prey. Its loud, somewhat cat-like cry, coming from the dense hardwood forests which border swamps, lakes, and rivers, at once attracts attention. A pair has been known to return to the same nesting locality for fifteen consecutive years. This hawk has proved itself to be of inestimable value to the farmer, and deserves his protection.

Notes

April Thirteenth

For the past six weeks, chipmunks have occasionally come out from their nests of dried grass and leaves, made in one of their several tunnels beneath the line of frost under a stone pile, or a stump. Now they are seen every day. It is only of recent years that we have discovered that chipmunks destroy grubs and insects, thus rendering service for the nuts and grain that they carry away in the fall.

April Fourteenth

Have you noticed how the robins congregate in the evening and battle with each other on the house-tops until dark? It is during the mating season that these fights take place. Long after the other birds have gone to bed. Cock Robin is awake, and shouting loud and defiant challenges to whoever will accept them.

April Fifteenth

Fungi are the lowest forms of plant life. They subsist on living and dead organic matter, and not from the soil, as do most other plants. The bread molds, downy mildew on decaying fruit and vegetables, and the fungus that kills fish and insects, are all forms of fungi. Patches of luxuriant grass are seen where decaying fungi have fertilized the soil.

Notes

April Sixteenth

The continuous "chip-chip-chip-chip-chip-chip——" of the chipping sparrow, like a toy insect that must run down before it can stop, is always a welcome sound at this time of the year. He can easily be tamed to take food from one's hand. Although a neat nest-builder, "chippy" selects poor nesting sites, and often the wind upsets his hair-lined cup and destroys the eggs or young.

April Seventeenth

At first the song of the spring peeper, which is really a frog, is heard only in the evening, but as the days get warmer, a perfect chorus of piping voices comes from swamps and stagnant pools. He strongly objects to singing before an audience, but it is well worth one's while to wait patiently and catch him in the act of inflating the skin beneath his chin.

April Eighteenth

On account of its tufted head, and clear, ringing song, "peto, peto, peto, peto" or "de, de, de, de," much like a chickadee (Chapman) the tufted titmouse is a well-known bird throughout its range: eastern United States, from northern New Jersey, and southern Iowa to the plains.

Notes

April Nineteenth

Where is the country boy or girl who does not know the "woolly bear," or "porcupine caterpillar," the chunky, hairy, rufous and black-banded caterpillar, that curls up when touched and does not uncoil until danger is over? They are the larvÆ of the Isabella moth, and the reason for their appearance on the railroad tracks and wagon roads, is that they have just finished hibernating and are now looking for a suitable place to retire and change to chrysalides and then into moths.

April Twentieth

In the Northern States, where the red-headed woodpecker is not very common, it is apt to be confused with other species of woodpeckers. The red-headed woodpecker is scarlet down to its shoulders. The eastern woodpeckers that have the red crescent on the back of the head are flicker, downy, and hairy woodpeckers.

April Twenty-first

The gardener, while spading about the roots of a tree, will often throw out a number of white, chunky grubs, about the size of the first joint of one's little finger. These are the larvÆ of the June, or May beetle. In the fall, they dig below frost line, where they remain until the following spring. After three years of this life, they emerge from the ground in May and June, perfect beetles.

Notes

April Twenty-second

The myrtle, or yellow-rumped warbler, which spends the winter from Massachusetts, south, into the West Indies and Central America, and nests usually north of the United States, is very common now. It is found in scattered flocks. If in doubt of its identity, look for the yellow patch on the crown, and on the rump.

April Twenty-third

The dainty little spring beauty, or claytonia, is another of the early blooming flowers. "We look for the spring beauty in April or May, and often find it in the same moist places—on a brook's edge or skirting of wet woods—as the yellow adder's tongue." (Dana.)

April Twenty-fourth

Toads are now beginning to leave their winter beds, in the leaves, under stones and the like. Did you ever tie a piece of red cloth on a string, dangle it over a toad's head, to see him follow and snap at it? Toads exude a strong acid secretion from the pores of the skin, which is distasteful to most predatory animals, excepting the snakes.

Notes

April Twenty-fifth

The yellow-bellied sapsucker is the only member of the woodpecker family whose presence is objectionable. His habit of puncturing the bark of trees and then visiting the cups to catch the sap, is well known. At any time of the year, row after row of these holes may be seen on fruit-trees (usually apple and pear)—written evidence of his guilt. See if you can catch him in the act.

April Twenty-sixth

Turkey buzzards, or vultures, are repulsive and ungainly when on the ground, but they are by far the most graceful of all our large birds when in flight. They are rarely seen in New England, or in the Northern States of the Middle Atlantic group, but in the South they are common throughout the year. Mounting high in the air, they circle 'round and 'round with scarcely a flutter of the wings, but nervously tilting to right or left, like a tight-rope walker with his balancing pole.

April Twenty-seventh

This is about the time that young red foxes get their first sight of the wide, wide world. In the Southern States they have been prowling about with their parents for weeks; but north of New York City the farmer's boy, as he now goes for the cows in the morning, will frequently see a fox family playing about the entrance to their burrow.

Notes

April Twenty-eighth

So ruthlessly has the trailing arbutus, or "May-flower" as it is called in New England, been destroyed, that in places where it was once common, it is now almost extinct. Of its odor, Neltje Blanchan says: "Can words describe the fragrancy of the very breath of spring—that delicious commingling of the perfumes of arbutus, the odors of pines, and the snow-soaked soil just warming into life?"

April Twenty-ninth

Why are the robins so abundant? Because they are all pushing forward to their Northern nesting grounds. Even in Alaska you would find a few pairs that have made the long, perilous journey in safety, raising their young in the balsam-poplars along some glacial stream, while in Georgia and Florida, where large flocks of them winter, not one would now be seen.

April Thirtieth

If you will sow a few sunflower seeds in a corner of the garden and let the plants go to seed, in the fall you are sure to have feathered visitors in the shape of goldfinches, chickadees, and nuthatches. The nuthatches (no doubt thinking of the hard times to come) will carry the seeds away, and store them in the crevices of the bark of trees.

Notes

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