Some Winter Guests 3 



down in the middle of a flock, and the birds 

 would come into one's lap to feed. They would 

 alight upon the heads of children watching them, 

 and sometimes they allowed us to pick them up 

 one in each hand. 



Another winter the crossbills visited us. 

 A few, six or eight, had been coming most of the 

 summer to the garden path. Two or three were 

 American and the rest white-winged crossbills. 

 They crept about, quiet as mice, eating some- 

 thing, but just what it was I could not tell until 

 they had been here for some time. Then one 

 day after watching them at work for several 

 minutes, I took a magnifying glass and went 

 down on my knees to see what there might be 

 there to attract them. I found that they had 

 been working on a patch of clay, the surface 

 of which they had carved in every direction with 

 their sharp bills. As there were no "chips" I 

 knew that these must have been eaten, so I 

 tasted the clay to see why they had eaten it. It 

 was very salty, the result of scattering salt on 

 the path to kill the weeds. A few days later our 

 friend, Frederic H. Kennard, came to see us, 

 and observing the crossbills, ran into the house 

 for some salt, of which he had often observed 

 their fondness. The flock continued to grow 

 until midwinter, when it numbered about a 



