Bird-Talk. By Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. For some time Mrs. Whitney has been making a study of our wild birds and their individual song expression; and from that study comes now a delicious group of poems, each descriptive of a bird and its haunts, and each including a metrical rendering of that bird’s song, based on the true vowel sounds in the notes of its melody. This dainty and amusing series will be as follows:

Jan. In the Evergreens. Chickadee.
Feb. In the Thorn-Thicket. Blue Jay.
Mar. On the Bare Bough. Song-Sparrow.
Apr. In Open Fields. Crow, Robin.
May Hid in the Lilac.
On a Grass-Head.		 Cat-bird.
Bobolink.
June In the Ash-Tree.
Under the Laurel Bush.		 Vireo.
Oven-bird.
July In the Cherry-Trees.
In the Birch Hollow.		 Tanager.
Savanna Sparrow.
Aug. In Deep Woods. Small Fly-Catcher.
Hermit Thrush.
Sept. In the Stubble. Quail.
Oct. Among Falling Leaves. Tree-Sparrow.
Nov. In Early Snow. Goldfinch.
Dec. From the Old Barn Gable. Screech Owl.

In War-Times at La Rose Blanche. By Mrs. M. E. M. Davis. Twelve stories, written by a prominent New Orleans lady, the wife of a Confederate cavalry officer. They relate the adventures of a great Southern sugar-plantation household, whose men were in the army from the beginning to the end of the Civil War. The author was a little girl at the time—the “Miss Ma’y” of the stories—and was concerned in many little dramas, some humorous and some pathetic, in which both “Blue-coats” and “Gray-coats” were actors. “The Letter from the Front,” describing the Battle of the Wilderness, in which her brother of fifteen was a color-bearer in Hood’s Brigade, is said by both Union and Confederate officers to be one of the best descriptions ever written of what one soldier sees and feels in a battle. Some hundreds of “house and field hands” belonged to La Rose Blanche plantation, and the “dialect” is not one of the least of the charms of these stories. Illustrations by E. W. Kemble.

Ballads about Old-Time Authors. By Harriet Prescott Spofford. In twelve picturesque ballads Mrs. Spofford will relate some tender stories from the lives of the masters of the earlier English literature—that one of “Goldsmith’s Whistle,” and that one of Johnson doing penance in Uttoxeter Market, and of Milton blind, and of Lamb and his sister—and many another beautiful literary story with which young people ought to be made familiar. These ballads will be richly and authentically illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett.

Famous Pets. By Eleanor Lewis. A series of papers which have been in preparation at home and abroad for several years, comprising among their treasures rich contributions of facts, anecdotes, descriptions, engravings and photographs from many noted people who have owned interesting pets: for instance, the first paper, “Some Scotch Celebrities,” narrates an interesting talk with the old keeper of Grayfriar’s Churchyard, where the famous “Grayfriar’s Bobby” lived and died, and another chat with the sister of Dr. John Brown, author of “Rab and his Friends,” with an engraving from a charming photographed group of Dr. Brown, Dr. Peddie and “Dandie,” and half a dozen pictures from paintings, statues and photographs.

“Fairy Folk All.” By Louise Imogen Guiney. Twelve Papers. Researches in fairy-land, giving the natural history of brownies and bogles, of fays and elves, of necks, nixies and puckwudjies, of kelpies and kobolds—in short, of all the known races of “the little vanishing folk,” with accounts of their dress, haunts, habits, manners, customs and usages. Full of delicious anecdote and legend, and with bewitching pictures.

NEW FEATURES, SPECIALTIES, SINGLE NUMBER ARTICLES:

A New Department, called The Contributors and the Children, is to be the fireside and round-table corner of the magazine. There the famous Wide Awake writers will meet the young folks face to face as it were, and in social chats with them say a thousand bright and important little things which naturally cannot come into their stories and articles. It will be a cosey and notable spot—this Contributors’ Corner. Charming plans for it have already been carried out: at the Christmas (Dec.) gathering the young folks are to meet Mrs. James T. Fields, Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, Margaret Sidney, Susan Coolidge and Sarah Orne Jewett. The New Year’s reception will be no less delightful.

Concord: Its Ways and By-Ways. By Margaret Sidney. A series of papers about this historic and literary Mecca, its picturesque waters, lanes and spots, its famous people and their famous homes and haunts—full of fresh anecdote and reminiscence. Mr. A. W. Hosmer, the accomplished amateur photographer, is now making negatives in and about Concord town, for the liberal illustration of these papers.