100 



THE OSPREY. 



ing. Dandelions, chickweed, and here and there 

 a bed of the whitlow grass, visited by the ever 

 busy, restless bee, break the sameness of the 

 greening turf. There is expectation in the air, 

 everj'thing seems ready and expectant, every- 

 thing is astir. The deadness all seems gone, 

 the trees appear to yawn and stretch their 

 branches after the long slumber now happily 

 past. Tomorrow must bring new faces, — birds 

 from the south are comingi But tomorrow did 

 not. True to the past strain of weather, we had 

 snow, snow, snow, and more of it on Saturday 

 "with increasing northwesterly winds." Dako- 

 ta blizzards would have expressed it better. 

 Fifteen inches of snow on the level, more or 

 less where the wind chose to rearrange it. Sun- 

 day the eighteenth was cold and I was pleased 

 to remain indoors with a good fire and observe 

 the birds from niy window. Our cedars have 

 borne a great crop of berries this year and have 

 for some time been a favorite resort of our 

 birds. Sunday and during the cold days which 

 followed a large flock of Purple Finches was 

 busily engaged discussing the quality of this 



fruit. Occasionally a bright colored male would 

 occupy one of the exposed outer spraj's and 

 thus display his flashing armour of red in the 

 warm sunlight. How different a bird looks 

 when the sunshine is playing vipon his plumage! 

 the colors seem to become animated and appear 

 as different as a stuffed skin does from the liv- 

 ing member, in form. The Juncos were enjoy- 

 ing the berries which had been dropped in the 

 snow beneath the tree. 



I freed a large area from snow and scattered 

 hemp seed on the ground. Soon a band of 

 Snowbirds repaid me for my trouble, fourteen 

 of the busy little slate-colored fellows were 

 feasting on the meal spread before them. A 

 solitary Fox Sparrow remained with me all day, 

 leaving only when disturbed, but returning at 

 once when danger seemed past. Two White 

 throated and three English Sparrows conclude 

 the list of Finches which partook of the hemp. 

 Though I believe the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker 

 which joined their company helped himself to 

 an occasional grain. He soon however discov- 

 ered that a piece of fat pork, which was nailed 



The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker or Sapsucker: Sphyrapicus varius. 

 (From Bulletin 7 of Division of Economic Biology D. A.) 



