DOTS m FEATHERS. 151 



storm should get them in its grip it would press 

 the life out of their slight forms. But such is not 

 the fact, for they linger here in the fall long after 

 their more tender and delicate relatives in plumes 

 have hied away to the " Sunny South." During 

 a snow-storm in November, I walked out to a deep 

 ravine in Northeastern Ohio, and found a bevy of 

 my little golden-crowned friends flitting about in 

 the trees as cheerful as you please. They seemed 

 to say, " The snow doesn't hurt us : no, indeed ! 

 It's good for our health, sir." 



The foregoing was written in November, 1890. 

 I may briefly sum up the results of my study of 

 this bird during the following winter. Although 

 the weather was rather severe, he remained in the 

 woods until the first of February, and seemed to 

 be very happy even when the wind was howling 

 through the bare branches and the snow flying in 

 the cold gusts. Rainy days, when not too cold, 

 seemed to put him in a cheerful mood. He donned 

 his little water-proof suit, tilted, tseeped, gathered 

 nits and buds, and only stopped at intervals to 

 shake the drops from his plumage. Strange to say,^ 

 however, when the weather became mild during the 

 first week in February, he left my woodland for 

 other regions. But where did he go? Did he hie 



