BIRDS IN THE BUSH 



225 



it should he added that the color in all 

 is a real red, too, — not russet or rufous, 

 as in the robin. 



Doubtless the most welcome bird in 

 winter, whenever he sees fit to stay 

 with us so late, is the robin. I have 

 seen him in mid-winter apparently 

 quite at home and comfortable in a 

 mountain ash tree of a village on the 

 bleak shores of Lake Michigan. 



Like the robin, the cedar waxwing 

 is not a regular winter bird ; but when 

 he does remain through a northern 

 winter it is in company with a dozen 

 or more of his fellows, and it is a good 

 sign that there is no lack of mountain 

 ash berries. With his jaunty crest and 

 yellow-tipped tail (the red "wax" on 

 the wings is inconspicuous), he is per- 

 haps the most picturesque bird to be 

 found in the winter mountain ash. 



Pine siskins and goldfinches, the lat- 

 ter now in their dull post-nuptial plu- 

 mage, doubtless attract the least atten- 

 tion of all these winter birds, yet none 

 occur more regularly than they. Both 

 species are small, and about the same 

 size, the siskin grayish, the goldfinch 

 buffy ; in flight the former displays 

 bright yellow on the wings and base 

 of the tail. Though these birds often 

 come into town, where they frequent 

 and feed on the mountain ash, they 

 are still more at home in the woods, 

 their favorite food here being seeds of 

 the black birch ; often, too, they are 

 to be met in neglected fields and along 

 weedy road-sides, goldenrod and many 

 other plants contributing to their diet 

 of seeds. In feeding from a branch or 

 spray they are as apt as not to hang 

 back downward ; but it must not be 



PINE GROSBEAK. 



thought that habit alone will serve to 

 identify them. It is practiced by all 

 or most of the smaller tree-feeding 

 birds to some extent, and is in fact 

 more a trait of titmice than of spar- 

 rows. It is to the latter family that 

 siskins, goldfinches, cross-bills and 

 grosbeaks belong. 



E. J. Sawyer. 



To a Nighthawk. 



Strange twilight bird that comes when pur- 

 ple shadows 



Are gathering from the hilltops far away, 



Descending silent, save the long-drawn, 

 muffled whirring 



As thy swift wings denote an instant's stay. 



How far thou art above us, there's no 



telling; 

 Dark is thy breast, the color of the sky. 

 Whence did'st thou learn those grateful 



curves majestic, 

 That mark thy path across the roseate sky? 



But see! The morning sun streams forth in 



splendor; 

 Thou, too, hath rested through the stilly 



night. 

 Back to thy waiting field-nest rude, till 



evening 

 Bids thee wander on thy food-quest flight. 



— Edith P. Hathaway. 



GOLDFINCH IN WINTER PLUMAGE. 



In "Bird-Lore" for October. William P. 

 Wharton describes a visit to the estate of 

 Baron von Berlepsch at Seebach, Germany, 

 where the surprisingly successful methods 

 in increasing the bird population have made 

 von "Rerlepsch's name widely known. Louis 

 Agassiz Fuertes continues' his illustrated 

 serial on the 'Voices of Tropical Birds;' 

 Cooke and Frank M. Chapman 

 North American Sparrows; and 

 there are numbers of notes from bird-stu- 

 dents, and news of the activities of the 

 Audubon Society. 



Wells W 

 write on 



