A BIRD'S YEAR 



upon a Grouse in midwinter, that the severe 

 weather adds strength to his sturdy wings. 



During the winter months most migrants, 

 often in loose bands made up of several varieties 

 having similar feeding habits, lead a nomadic 

 life, apparently care free except for the necessity, 

 which they constantly face, of securing the daily 

 food supply. So generously does bountiful Na- 

 ture provide for her children this is not usually 

 a difficult task. Birds do not have the instinct 

 which many animals possess of storing food in 

 excess of their immediate needs for use in winter, 

 hence the daily quest; neither do they sleep the 

 time away as do many animals. 



Those birds that eat seeds and berries, as 

 Robins, Bluebirds, Catbirds, Sparrows and 

 Finches, iind their winter food in our Southern 

 States. The insect-eaters as a rule go farther 

 south, below the frost line, to southern Florida, 

 Mexico, Central and South America. Wood- 

 peckers find the grubs they eat under the bark 

 and in the wood of dead and decaying trees; so 

 that their food problem does not necessitate 

 migration. Sometimes Song and White-throated 

 Sparrows and Alyrtle Warblers find their winter 

 food as far north as New York City. Then they 

 do not migrate. In a clump of cedars just north 

 of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where the cat- 

 brier and poison ivy form a dense tangle, I have 

 often found these birds as late as the end of De- 

 cember; and they sometimes stay there all winter. 



Several months are passed in this easy-going 

 sort of an existence. But the first breath of 

 spring which has its beginning in some Indefin- 



