l66 NATURE STUDY. 



lieved that the mortality among birds has been great in 

 the last few months. 



If the bird-lover cannot give his feathered friends access 

 to a larder of dried sunflower seeds, mountain-ash berries, 

 seeds of weeds and grasses and coniferous trees, surely, he 

 will not count the cost and trouble of sowing a small quan- 

 tity of grain and crumbs spared from his own table. 



The Knglish sparrow will get his share, but it is not his 

 fault that he finds himself in a land where migration seems 

 so desirable and still is bej-ond his knowledge. The prin- 

 ciple of life ordained to the small and common is the same 

 as that of nobler birds, and the hopelessness of the fall to 

 the ground from cold and starvation arouses the sympathy 

 that should exist in the core of every human heart, and 

 stimulate not so much to tearful sentiment as to giving 

 every living creature a fair and equal chance so far as lies 

 within our power. 



The Rabbit Steals a Coat. 



Here is another "nature story," formerly told by the 

 Indians to one another and to their children, as it was 

 translated by Mr. James Mooney and preserved in his great 

 collection of " Myths of the Cherokee," published a short 

 time since by the Bureau of American Ethnology : 



The animals were of different sizes and wore coats of 

 various colors and patterns. Some wore long fur and oth- 

 ers short. Some had rings on their tails, and some had 

 no tails at all. Some had coats of blown, others of black 

 or yellow. They were always disputing about their good 

 looks, so at last they agreed to hold a council to decide 

 who had the finest coat. 



They had heard a great deal about the Otter, who lived 

 so far up the creek that he seldom came down to visit the 

 other animals. It was said that he had the finest coat of 



