"right after the journey the mate, and next the nest. Do not forget the
mate, Nat, for it is Mrs. Bird who usually makes the nest and _always_
lays the eggs, besides working in the guilds with her husband, whose
greatest distinction is in being the family musician."

"When do the Summer Citizens begin to come back to their nesting
places?" asked Nat. "And when do they go away again?"

"The great bird procession begins the first of March with Bluebirds,
Robins, Redwings, and Meadowlarks, but it is the first of June before
the latest comers, the little Marsh Wrens, are settled. Then in autumn,
from September until the first snows of December fall, the procession
flutters back south again, one by one or in great flocks, dropping away
like falling leaves in the forest, and the birds that we see later are
likely to be Citizens.

"The early Robin may have a second brood and the Hummingbird eggs in her
nest, before the Marsh Wrens have even been seen.

"In the Southern States the birds arrive and build sooner than in the
Northern. A cold spring may delay the on-coming migration, or a warm
autumn retard the return movement. But as you study birds you will soon
see that each one has his own place in the procession, and usually keeps
it. Year by year this vast procession goes on in the air, back and
forth, night and day, like the ceaseless ebb and flow of the tides at
sea. Bird-waves flow on forever, in their appointed times, and none of
Nature's aspects are more regular or more unfailing. It almost seems,
boys, as if birds made the seasons--as if winter in the Middle and
Northern States might be called the 'songless season.'"