AM EB IC AN ORNITHOLOGY. 



I could hear twittering and chirp- ^,,00' .<. y,-^'" 



ings from some small birds that 



Icept provokingly out of sight 



among the top branches, but peer 



and look as I would, I could not teil what 



they were. They did not sing and there 



was nothing specially characteristic in the 



little chirps and whispers that came to 



my ear from time to time. At last one 



of them flew across the open between two 



trees and I recognized my small friend 



chickadee, when he was comfortably es- 



tablished in his new Situation he took 



time to sing his name very distinctly, in 



case I had failed to reconize him by sight, 



but he had no need, for his fluffy gray suit and black cap and cravat 



mark him at once. There were perhaps a dozen of them getting their 



supper from the tiny seeds of the hemlock, and, in the road, the snow 



\yhich had been spotless an hour before was covered with the little 



brown cones and feathery bits of green where they had nipped off a 



twig just for fun. Such a chattering and fluttering and chirping as 



they kept up, just like any other five o'clock function! Between 



cöurses one of them would fly from the brauch where he had been eat- 



ing and, hanging upside down on the very tip of a twig would sing his 



sweet, homely little song over and over by way of adding to the 



festivity of the occasion showing his own appreciation of the good 



cheer. And yet, I faucy that as winters go this has been a trying 



one to the birds that do not migrate and it must be a very frugal re- 



past, this meal of hemlock seeds. Commend nie to any creature who 



will sing so cheerily over so scanty supper, and even leave off eating 



to entertain the Company. How glad they will be to have Spring and 



an abundance once more. When they are in little companies and all 



talking together they do not sing Chick-a-dee-dee-dee; but a little song 



something like a repetition of the first three notes. It sounds very 



cheery and companionable when I am Walking in winter and is so often 



the only bird I hear. I am ashamed to think that after their bravery 



in facing and singing through a northern winter, I shall turn from them 



to follow the first gay warbler that goes whisking by from the South. 



My bouquet contains branches of beechand wild cherry tree, red-osier 



dogwood, a branch of raspberry bush and another of elderberry with 



buds already swelling. These to be put in a jar of water and watched as 



they develop, I hope, their leaves and blossoms. And besides my 



bunch of promises I have a few long feathery sprays of white pine. 



good, green, always-with-us pine, just because I love a pine tree above 



every other and like always to have a bit of its faithful greenness on 



my desk or near at band. m. s.. DeCoster. n. y. 



