REDPOLL AND SISKIN 



A PAIR OF WINTER WANDERERS 



Redpoll 



{Figs, 47, 48) 



HEN the world of birds was a fasci- 

 nating mystery to me, filled with 

 strange forms and stranger voices, 

 about which no one seemed to 

 know anything, I saw, one winter 

 day, a flock of small birds feeding 

 on the catkins of a white birch. They seemed to 

 be about the size and general color of Chipping 

 Sparrows (one of the few birds I knew by name, 

 and which I called ''Chippy"), but when I got near 

 enough to see them clearly I discovered, to my sur- 

 prise, that they wore red caps 1 Some, indeed, had 

 red vests! What could they be? Where had they 

 come from? With neither books nor "bird'* friends 

 to consult, both questions remained long unanswered ; 

 so I named the birds "Red-capped Chippies," and by 



that name I think of them to this day. 



105 



