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Though graceful in form and beautiful in feathery garb, he has an appetite that does not hesitate even upon the verge of cannibalism. Doubtless all our winter birds have a wider range of dietetic resources than every one of their human observers is aware. There is one thought in the present train of reflections that appeals to us with emphatic force. It would seem to be that many, if not all, of our winter birds depend considerably upon the bare earth for the means of their fullest subsistence. This is apparently true because the birds seem to be in greater dietetic straits when the ground is deeply covered with snow. The crow and even the hawk exhibit a tendency to quit these hills and vales for the not distant shore of the sea, where the warm influences of the broad ocean tend to reduce the quantity of snow upon the contiguous land, or to entirely prevent its accumulation. At times the owl is the only distinctively carnivorous bird that seems to stick by us in the drearier aspects of winter, though his excursions in the dark forbid the minute observations of his flight, that might in the daytime determine his migratory habits more directly.

In central New Hampshire in winter, one bird preys upon another, one wrests a grub from a tree, one captures a stray insect, and one appropriates a seed from a dry weed that protrudes above the snow. But just now, the snow being specially deep, several varieties of birds do not hesitate to hover around the domicile of man and accept a dole of hospitality

Still,

from his more abundant provisional stores. They will accept most any crumb of diet that may in kindness be thrown out to them. man's hospitality in the described case may be the means of his own peculiarly contemplative pleasure. An ear of corn fixed to a tree near a farmer's window will afford many a pleasant inspection of a blue jay that arrives to take a kernel or two, now and then, until the whole ear shelled and only the spike is left. The black-capped titmouse will accept a kernel of corn, but only conditionally. His is a fastidious appetite when only corn is upon the board. He selects a kernel and pecks at it diligently till he has entirely appropriated the farinaceous speck that is popularly known as the chit. The titmouse, or chickadee, as he is more commonly called, leaves a kernel of corn in the same state of partial consumption as do the squirrel and some other representatives of the rodent, or gnawing, tribes of quadrupeds. A generous fragment of refuse meat hung upon a tree in sight of one's dwelling at this time will draw gaily attired blue jays, gorgeously decked woodpeckers, and modestly dressed titmice. They will all eat and be filled, and though they will not return thanks, their frequent visits will beguile many a wintry hour, while the cheerful chant of the chickadee will afford a gratification to the ear that mourns the more melodious strains of song that break from the throats of birds in the happier summer.

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Firm on thy rock, O church of God,

Thy white walls greet the rising sun;
Pass'd have a century's quickning years.
Since first thy leav'ning work begun.

The fathers sleep beneath the sod,

Their children's tottering footsteps still,
When soul feels need of heavenly balm,
Lead up the path to Rocky Hill.

Thy rough-hewn beams and time-stained walls
Have echoed long to song and prayer;
A thousand treasured mem'ries breathe
The perfume of thy quiet air.

The preacher's word and holy writ
In sounding-board is echoing still;
Balerma's notes, St. Martyn's wail,

While dews of Hermon yet distill.

1 Rocky Hill church stands beside the highway leading from Amesbury to Salisbury, Mass., and was originally the West Parish church of Salisbury, but as a portion of that town has been joined to Amesbury it is now within the limits of the latter town. The photographs were taken during the past year, and are a very good representation of the present appearance of the church, exterior and interior. The West Parish of Salisbury was formed in the year 1718, and a smaller church built a short distance from where the present structure stands. When a larger building was needed the material of the old church was utilized in its construction. Abigail Eastman, the mother of Daniel Webster, was a member of this parish, and in looking over the records one sees that on the 13th of October, 1774, she was married to Ebenezer Webster, and from this locality commenced her long ride on the pillion of her hus. band, to Boscawen, there to become the mother of statesmen. Thus do the threads of history connect the lower with the upper waters of the Merrimack.

The traveler, passing late at night,
When dimly falls the old moon's rays,
Pauses to hear some solemn notes

Of pleading tone or voice of praise.
The earth-schooled skeptic tries to think
'Tis but the wanton wind at play,
Bearing the rote of distant sea

From foam crowned waves so far away. He does not know that, silent there

Within the moonbeams' wavering play The pews are filled with spectered forms, While ghostly pastors preach and pray.

A man is born but never dies,

His words, his works forever live
The mools of earth, the narrow grave
A rest of flesh alone can give.

We do not know just why or how,
But surely feel a presence there,
When rough hands jar some treasured vase
Their eyes have watched with loving care.

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Thought comes by years in spirit school;

The callow youth can know it not;
The old wine of the soul may stand,
Cobwebbed in silence, not forgot.

'Tis sacrilege to tread those stairs

The fathers' feet have worn so thin,
And bring your blighted sheaves of wheat,
A false pretense to worship him.

Go sing your operatic airs

Where psalms of praise were never heard,
Go flaunt your oratoric powers

But do not call it God's own word.

There are no cushioned wheels that roll
On roads that lead to paradise;
The penitential tear alone

Gives prismic glimpse to heavenly skies.

Then leave the old roof standing there,
A silent relic of the past;

The coin ye bring hath not the stamp
That came from fiery furnace blast.

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Not alone for sentimental reasons are bobolinks prized by the inhabitants of their summer homeland, for they are highly thought of on count of their destructiveness to insects. During this season they eat insects almost exclusively. To the young they bring grasshoppers. Careful watching at the nest has shown that they discriminate as to color. Not less than nine out of every ten hoppers brought to the nest are green. There does not appear to be any choice of species, for long-horned and short-horned hoppers were brought in about the same numbers. As a rule nymphs are preferred to adult specimens. So far as the bobolink's conduct in the North is concerned it is above reproach.

Early in August there is a gathering together of families into flocks, and the movement southward is begun. Then come trying times for "bob" and his enemies. Along the coast of the Middle Atlantic states reed birds, as they are called there, are slain for the table by untold thousands. Further south they enter the rice fields when the grain is in the milk, and it is there they cast off virtue and become thieves.

The rice planters have abundant cause for hating them, and employ every available means for their destruction. There is mutual distress. It has been stated that $2,000,000 worth of rice is annually destroyed. The number of birds slain is beyond reckoning.

In spite of the enormous drain upon their numbers, the flocks seem as numerous as ever. It is probable, however, that they are actually decreasing. It does not seem possible that the immense numbers annually

slain in the South can be made good. Then, in New Hampshire, at least, farmers past middle age state that bobolinks are not nearly so common in the fields as they were fifty or sixty years ago. While it may be that the rice destroyed is worth more than the slaughter of insects, there is no certainty that it is so, though no one can blame rice planters for attempting to exterminate them. In any case those who know the bobolink at home can but regard with complaisancy the fact that he yet has a place among things that are.

THE COWBIRD.

The cowbird is found throughout the United States except along the Pacific coast. Its name was given in recognition of its fondness for bovine society. It is essentially a bird of the field, spending nearly all its time searching for food in fields and pastures. It eats insects, grasshoppers, beetles, larvæ, etc., in summer, and takes seeds of weeds and occasionally small grains at other seasons to a considerable extent. So far as its food habits are concerned, there is much to commend it, but as a parasite on other birds it is undoubtedly noxious. Its domestic relations are decidedly irregular. Males are more numerous than females. Polyandry is common practice. They never pair. They never build nests. By stealth eggs are deposited in other birds' nests to be hatched and the young raised by foster parents. Here is where they are criminal in effect if not in intention. The cowbird egg is laid with an uncompleted clutch. It hatches more quickly than the rightful occupants, it is larger than they, -as the hosts are almost in

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