DECEMBER OUT-OF-DOORS. AY 
wayfarers stayed week after week. When- 
ever I stole up cautiously and peeped over 
the bank into their verdant hiding-place, I 
was sure to hear the familiar cry; and di- 
rectly one bird, and then another, and an- 
other, would start up before me, disclosing 
the characteristic brown feathers of the 
lower back. They commonly assembled in 
the middle of the marsh upon the snow or 
ice, where they stood for a little, bobbing 
their heads in mutual conference, and then 
flew off over the house and over the orchard, 
calling as they flew. 
Throughout December, and _ indeed 
throughout the winter, brown creepers and 
red - bellied nuthatches were surprisingly 
abundant. Every pine wood seemed to have 
its colony of them. Whether the extraordi- 
nary mildness of the season had anything to 
do with this I cannot say; but their pres- 
ence was welcome, whatever the reason for 
it. Like the chickadee, with whom they 
have the good -taste to be fond of associat- 
ing, they are always busy and cheerful, ap- 
pearing not to mind either snow-storm or 
low temperature. No reasonable observer 
would ever tax them with effeminacy, though 
