BIRDS OF AUTUMN AND WINTER. 



Dimly I catch the throb of distant flails : 



Silently overhead the Hen-hawk sails, 



With watchful, measuring eye and for his quarry waits. 



— Lowell. 



During the last week in August there is a decided stii 

 among the feathered folk. The summer residents who have 

 been moulting in seclusion for the last month, emerge from 

 their retreats and are joined by flocks of others of similar 

 species, who have summered further north, and who will 

 remain with us for several weeks before beginning their 

 downward trip. 



By calling certain species resident, it does not necessarily 

 mean that the same individuals remain in one place for the 

 entire year. Except in the breeding-season all birds rove 

 about, even if they do not absolutely migrate, guided in 

 their course by the food supply and the weather. Tbe food 

 supply is tbe more potent motive of the two, for many 

 insect-eating birds like the Flycatchers and Vireos could 

 winter with, us in the protection of hedges and evergreens ; 

 but with the coming of frost their food is cut off. Even 

 the seed-eating birds, like the hardy Goldfinches, Buntings, 

 and Juncos, are often driven to begging about barns and 

 granaries when a sudden snow-storm covers the low herbs 

 and grasses upon whose seeds they subsist. 



It is during the last week in August that the Baltimore 

 Orioles gather, and pipe with an anxious note in their 

 voices, as much as to say, " It is very pleasant here still, 

 but we must be off before the leaves grow thin and betray 

 us to our enemies." The Kingbirds swoop and call, going 

 nearer to the house than usual. With September comes the 

 first decisive gathering of the bird clans. The Swallows 

 flock in the low meadows and on the edge of the beaches, 



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