MY WIIS^TEK COMPANIONS. 



Nothing in outdoor study is more interest- 

 ino" than a comparison of tlie conduct of the 

 birds in the same season of diiferent years, 

 for it must not be thought that they always 

 behave in the same way. The present winter 

 — this w^as written in the wdnter of 1892-93 

 — has been much colder than last, and so the 

 feathered folk have changed their manners 

 somewhat, to suit the changed conditions. 



Here are a few instances : Last winter the 

 meadow larks remained in my neighborhood 

 until the 80th of December, singing a dirge — 

 althouc^h it w^as rather cheerful to be called 

 that — to the dying year ; this winter they 

 w^ere off to the south before the first cold wave 

 came in November. A year ago there ^vere 

 flickers and bluebirds in abundance all winter 

 in my favorite woodland, whereas this year 

 none have been seen since the middle of De- 

 cember. But, most unaccoiuitable of all, last 

 winter, no matter how stormy the ANcather, I 



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