80 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
mulleins were ranged in stiff files, like soldiers in 
yellow uniforms, and each bird as we passed re- 
mained motionless, looking like a continuation of 
the spike, of which one might easily be deceived 
into thinking it part and parcel. As soon as we 
had passed by, the birds were again busy, flitting 
from plant to plant, feeding on the seeds and 
enjoying themselves.” 
What a difference it makes in our thought of 
winter to know that our little goldfinch will never 
find it too cold to visit us. Being a vegetarian, his 
storehouse is always well filled, for if the snow 
covers the seeds he would gather from the brown 
weed tops, he goes to the alders in the swamp; 
and if they fail him he is sure to find plenty in the 
seeds of the hemlock, the spruce, and the larch. 
OCT. 
PHBE. 
Crassinc the crow-blackbird, bobolink, and 
oriole together in No. 3 by their striking colors, 
and distinguishing the sparrows in No. 4 by their 
striped backs, the common flycatchers, who belong 
in our first pigeon-hole, No. 1, stand out as un- 
striped, dull, dark grayish birds, with hight breasts. 
Mr. Burroughs describes them as “ sharp-shoul- 
dered, big-headed, short-legged, of no particular 
color, of little elegance of flight or movement,” 
