Death Of The Birds

The readers of "Our Boys and Oirls' have been told of the great damage done to the orange-groves and the flg trees of the south by the cold "snap" of last February, but there is another loss that we who live there have suffered, about which very little has been said. The severe weather not only killed our trees but the thousands of bright-plumed binls that have heretofore enlivened onr l'orests and groves with their beautiitil coats and their sweet songs. The Wueblrd, t'aat harbinger of the early spring, did not give us his merry greeting this year. His bright blue jacket and brown-red breast were missed by everybody. Seven little blue fornis, dried and decayed, were found in one old post on our place, where the poor creaturen had 3ed in vain for shelter. The blue jay still struts about with his usual dignity, but only here and there, showirg that his íribe has suffered fearful losse. The peculiarly sad note of the turtle-dove this year seems to mourn for the death of all her family. The effects upon the several tribes of the oriole seem to be the most curious. They evidently look upon man as the worker of all the evil they have suffered. Formerly it was an easy matter to find their swinging nests near to almost any country house, and they appeared not to be afraid of men. Now they have hielden their nests far out in the forests and they are shy even of the breeze as it rocks the eradle of their young. Even the few huniming birds that are left will not come to suck the pot plant as was once their daily habit. The woodpecker, though only a summer visitor, is spending his vacation at other resorts this season. His lazy cali and his constant drumming upon some dead tree, so common in summer before, are conspicuously absent this year. But the feil destróyer was no respecter of persons or rank; the royal family succumbed as well as the peasantry. The mocking-bird, the queen of the bird race by virtue of her genius and inheritance, is almost destroyed, except along the Mexican Gulf. A hunIred miles back it is hard to find one. The gum-tree and its berries, which ïave been held as her home and her eeding ground as far back as bird hisory runs, is now the feeding ground of aer commonest subjects, the sap-suekr and the yellow-hammer. I have heard ut two singers tais year within a cope where in former years I have eard 200. In losing a erop of r.ranges, figs and egetablea, we lose dollars and a few uxuries whose place may be supplied y the other sweets. The trees will row again a f ter a few years, but it will je many years bef ore oiir groves and orests are fuïl of birds again.