A BIRD MEDLEY 83 
them in the woods, on the ground, and in the trees. 
And still later, and on till February, they were very 
numerous on the Hudson, coming all about my 
house,— more familiar even than the little snow- 
bird, hopping beneath the windows, and looking up 
at me apparently with as much curiosity as I looked 
down upon them. They fed on the buds of the 
sugar maples and upon frozen apples in the orchard. 
They were mostly young birds and females, colored 
very much like the common sparrow, with now and 
then visible the dull carmine-colored head and neck 
of an old male. 
Other northern visitors that tarried with me the 
same winter were the tree or Canada sparrow and 
the redpoll, the former a bird larger than the so- 
cial sparrow or hair-bird, but otherwise much re- 
sembling it, and distinguishable by a dark spot in 
the middle of its breast; the latter a bird the size 
and shape of the common goldfinch, with the same 
manner of flight and nearly the same note or cry, 
but darker than the winter plumage of the gold- 
finch, and with a red crown and a tinge of red on 
the breast. Little bands of these two species lurked 
about the barnyard all winter, picking up the hay- 
seed, the sparrow sometimes venturing in on the 
haymow when the supply outside was short. I 
felt grateful to them for their company. They gave 
a sort of ornithological air to every errand I had to 
the barn. 
Though a number of birds face our winters, and 
by various shifts worry through till spring, some of 
