Winter Bird Life in tlie Pocono Mountains, 

 Pennsylvania 



BY WILLIAM L. BAILY 



My tliree short experiences in the Poconos in winter hardly 

 warrant more than a brief mention, but the observations that I 

 made have a direct bearing upon the food-supply and the effect 

 of deep snow on the life of the birds that may prove of interest. 

 Although the cold in this region is usually intense, and the 

 ground may be covered with deej) snow for weeks at a time, the 

 birds and mammals generally survive. 



An old resident of the region, Warner by name, used to say 

 that nature would provide for the birds no matter how hard the 

 winter might be, and that when in the fall the buds were full 

 and many, and the catkins on the birch and alder long and fat, 

 it indicated a severe winter, and his neighbors were warned to 

 stop up the cracks and fill their bins with wood. 



As an example of the truth of the old man's saying, when I 

 was there from February IS to 24, 1905, the buds on the rhodo- 

 dendron and laurel were remarkably full, the catkins were long 

 and fat, and the snow was from twenty-four to thirtj' inches on 

 a level everywhere, while some of the drifts were fifteen feet 

 high. It was impractical to cross the fields or enter the woods, 

 and my walking for two and a half days was confined almost 

 entirel}' to the roads opened by sleigh travel; hence the ground 

 I covered was rather limited. 



No snow had fallen for about ten days, and the snow and cold 

 had combined to make a thin crust on the surface, not quite 

 strong enough to bear one's weight, which made traveling 

 across the country almost imi^ossible. The weeds that furnish 

 such ample food-supply for the Finch family were buried out 

 of sight, and thus the birds had to feed upon the buds and cat- 



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