24 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



for the birds ; and we derive great pleas- 

 ure in watching the orioles, chipping 

 sparrows, robins, and the other birds 

 appropriate them for building mate- 

 rial. 



Yours sincerely, 



C. L. Gruber. 



Where the Trouble Is. 



Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

 To the Editor : 



We have been talking over at home 

 your editorial on why people consider 

 The Guide to Nature of interest only 

 to children. Of course some people do 

 not care anything for nature study any 

 way. It doesn't happen to interest 

 them just as others do not care for 

 music or books. But I think most of 

 those who are not interested have not 

 been educated up to it. Thev have to 

 learn to appreciate it just as one learns to 

 appreciate art, and real nature study 

 is just beginning to be introduced to 

 the world at large. Until recentlv 

 it has been only those who were born 

 with a love for nature who have taken 

 the trouble to make themselves ac- 

 quainted with it. 



The trouble lies, not in The Guide to 

 Nature, but in those people them- 

 selves, and I think this magazine and 

 Arcadia can and will do a great deal to 

 make nature study more widespread. 



Wishing you all manner of success 

 in Arcadia, I am 



Very sincerely- yours, 



Dorothy A. Baldwin. 



An Albino Redpoll. 



Goodwin, S. D. 

 To The Editor : 



One day late in autumn when the 

 chill winds swept across the prairies 

 of Dakota, driving the last clinging 

 leaves to earth and urging birds that 

 loitered still, on their southward mi- 

 gration, I chanced upon a flock of about 

 fifty redpolls. These birds are infre- 

 quent visitors in eastern South Dakota 

 and but few save this one flock have 

 ever come under my observation. 

 With a thrill of joyous anticipation I 

 cautiously approached the sweet voiced 

 throng which to me was so rare a sight. 

 But a rarer sight than all the other birds, 



was one member of their flock, an 

 albino redpoll. 



The albino's plumage, except the 

 primaries and tail, which were a deep 

 yellow, and the characteristic red cap, 

 was snowy white. One might fancy 

 that Nature had designed the mark- 

 ings of that beautiful bird with the ut- 

 most care, as though for an entire race 

 and not an individual. There was none 

 of the freakishness usually shown in 

 the markings of albino birds. The 

 perfect cap contrasting so beautifully 

 with the pure white, seemed of a deeper 

 red than did the caps of its compan- 

 ions. The rich yellow markings of the 

 wings and tail were without a rlaw 

 and lent tone and grandeur to the 

 beauty of the rare bird. 



I might have found it difficult to 

 believe the albino was a redpoll, had 

 I not seen him with his kin, observed 

 him gathering seeds in the character- 

 istic manner of the finches and heard 

 him answer the sweet, canary-like 

 notes of his companions. With aban- 

 donment he joined in the happy play, 

 the erratic movements and undulating 

 flights of his flock, unmindful of the 

 fact that his plumage made him an 

 object of rare beauty even among the 

 pretty redpolls. 



After that memorable autumn day, 

 I did not see the albino redpoll though 

 I observed stray members of his flock. 

 A few remained and sometimes broke 

 the winter silence of our grove with 

 their sweet calls, even when the ther- 

 mometer registered a temperature of 

 twenty degrees below zero, but the 

 greater portion of the flock, and with 

 them the albino, had flitted on their 

 way. 



Hattie Washburn. 



Crossbills in Prospect Park. 



Brooklyn, New York. 

 To the Editor : 



T was assured several times during 

 the past winter that there were red 

 crossbills in Prosnect Park, but I failed 

 to find them. On March eighth red 

 birds and olive birds were eating on the 

 ground, almost as tame as tame as 

 could be. My first thought was that 

 they were crossbills, but as T had 

 always looked for them in the pines. 



