What to Expect
“In April we may look for the coming of a score or more of different birds. How quickly they come and in what numbers depends upon the season. If it is mild, they come gradually; if stormy, by fits and starts, and sometimes in strangely mixed flocks.
“These belong to the first half of the month:—
The Great Blue Heron. Cousin to the white Egret; we always used to have a pair of them by the upper mill-pond.
The Purple Finch. A large sparrow with a beautiful voice; the fully grown male having a rosy flush to his feathers as if, it has been said, the juice of crimson berries had been squeezed over him.
The Vesper-sparrow. The wayside Sparrow of our afternoon walk that we have known as long as the Song Sparrow and Bluebird; famous for his clear, ringing song at twilight and dawn. Rather light in color, with rust-red wing-markings and white outside tail-feathers that show conspicuously as he flits along and tells his name.