146 



I^ikd-Lanh Fxiioes. 



ravines riiiij^ with their impulsive notes. Durinc^ the 

 winter you may see kini^lets daily for a month, and 

 conelude that they are silent, hterally voiceless, birds ; 

 but it sometimes happens, when the sun warms some 

 sheltered nook until we think of summer, that this 

 little bird will forget diat it is January, and, under 

 the influence of a day-dream, sing a few notes of its 

 June-day gladness. 



Very much the same may be said of the winter- 

 wren. This "double" of the summer sojourner 

 comes down from its northern home before the 

 other wren departs, and hence has arisen a very 

 common impression that the bird of the summer 

 does not leave us, but, as an old farmer said to me, 

 **Jack Frost puts a stopper to his singing." I did 

 not attempt to set the old man right ; it would have 

 been labor lost ; but I am not surprised at the mis- 

 take. As observed by me, the winter-wren comes 



