226 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



of the most rigorous weather, owls 

 small and large, hen hawks, crows, 

 jays, and shrikes. Robins, bluebirds, 

 and song-sparrows are kept with us by 

 genial weather, as well as the purple 

 finches, crossbills, siskins, nuthatches, 

 titmice, winter-wrens, the golden- 

 crowned kinglet, and the edge of the 

 woodpecker tribe. In the salt mead- 

 ows you may see the field and shore 

 larks, wild ducks and geese, and in the 

 stubble the quail, and perhaps a few 

 wild pigeons in the thin woods. 



Let us go up the road to the lane 

 that winds round the hill until it, by 

 twisting, caps it — the lane where the 

 wild apples bloomed in May. The 

 first impression is of sombreness. The 

 thin snow carpets the road to the stone 

 wall, but through it break sprays of 

 the smoky-seeded goldenrod, and the 

 skeleton nests of wild carrot, while by 



