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                           BIRDS AND NATURE.
                   ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
  Vol. XI.                   FEBRUARY, 1902.                     No. 2.




                               CONTENTS.


    FEBRUARY.                                                         49
    THE BLUE-HEADED VIREO. (_Vireo solitarius._)                      50
    BOOK AND MRS. OYSTER                                              53
    THE CALIFORNIAN THRASHER. (_Harporhynchus redivivus._)            59
    WINTER’S SECRET.                                                  60
    A QUEER PARTNERSHIP.                                              61
    THE BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD. (_Selasphorus platycercus._)        62
    A BIRD THAT HUNG HIMSELF.                                         65
    WINTER MEMORIES.                                                  66
    SOME OF OUR WINTER BIRDS. IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS.               67
    THE BROAD-WINGED HAWK. (_Buteo latissimus._)                      71
    THE BIRD’S COMPLAINT.                                             72
    CALIFORNIA POPPIES.                                               73
    QUARTZ.                                                           74
    MIDWINTER.                                                        79
    A CATASTROPHE IN HIGH LIFE.                                       80
    THE DOMESTIC CAT.                                                 83
    “CUBBY.”                                                          85
    SOAPWORT OR BOUNCING BET. (_Saponaria officinalis._)              86
    TURTLE-HEAD OR SNAKE-HEAD. (_Chelone glabra._)                    86
    THE POCKET BIRD.                                                  89
    THE BIRDS IN THEIR WINTER HOME. II. (In the Fields.)              90
    MUSIC-LOVING FELINES.                                             92
    FIRE-FLIES.                                                       92
    SUGAR-CANE. (_Saccharum officinarum Lin._)                        95
    DEATH OF THE FOREST MONARCH.                                      96




                               FEBRUARY.


    But Winter has yet brighter scenes—he boasts
  Splendors beyond what gorgeous summer knows;
  Or Autumn with his many fruits, and woods
  All flushed with many hues. Come when the rains
  Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,
  While the slant sun of February pours
  Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach!
  The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps,
  And the broad arching portals of the grove
  Welcome thy entering. Look! the massy trunks
  Are cased in the pure crystal; each light spray,
  Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven,
  Is studded with its trembling water-drops,
  That glimmer with an amethystine light.
  But round the parent-stem the long low boughs
  Bend, in a glittering ring, and arbors hide
  The glassy floor. Oh! you might deem the spot
  The spacious cavern of some virgin mine,
  Deep in the womb of earth—where the gems grow,
  And diamonds put forth radiant rods and bud
  While amethyst and topaz—and the place
  Lit up, most royally, with the pure beam
  That dwells in them.    *  *  *  *
                               —William Cullen Bryant, “A Winter Piece.”




                         THE BLUE-HEADED VIREO.
                         (_Vireo solitarius._)


The Blue-headed Vireo, or its varieties, of which there are several,
frequent nearly the whole of North America. The typical form of the
species, that of our illustration, has a range covering Eastern North
America and extending westward to the great plains. It breeds from
Southern New England and the lake states northward to Hudson Bay and
southward in the higher altitudes of the Alleghenies. It passes the
winter in Cuba, Mexico and Central America. The Blue-headed Vireo is
frequently called the Solitary Vireo, or Greenlet, because of its
retiring habits. It is a bird of the forest and stays very close in
these quiet retreats. Yet it is, as a rule, easy of approach, seeming to
possess both curiosity and confidence. Mr. Bradford Torrey writes with
enthusiasm regarding the pretty habits of this bird. He says: “Its most
winning trait is its tameness. Wood bird as it is, it will sometimes
permit the greatest familiarities. Two birds I have seen which allowed
themselves to be stroked in the freest manner while sitting on the eggs,
and