WINTER FROLICS. ba 
At one point I traced a path which bore evidence 
of having been used a number of times for a long 
distance, as it wound here and there in an ex- 
tremely sinuous course among the bushes and briers. 
Probably it was a sparrow-trail, if not a thoroughfare, 
and had been used by many birds. In more than 
one place were small hollows in the snow, just large 
enough for a bird’s body to wallow in. Usually 
they were at the terminus of one of these thorough- 
fares. Might the birds have tarried there to take a 
snow-bath? I have seen birds taking pool-baths, 
shower-baths, dew-baths, and dust-baths. Who will 
say they never take a snow-bath? 
Next to the tree-sparrows, the juncos delight to 
hold carnival in the snow; but their behavior in this 
element is somewhat different: they are not so fond 
of hopping about in it, and do not plait such a net- 
work of tracks among the bushes. They will fly 
from a perch directly to the ground near a weed- 
stalk or other cluster of dainties, and stand quietly 
in the snow up to their little bodies while they take 
their luncheon. Sometimes their white breasts rest 
on the surface of the snow, or in a slight depression 
of it, when they look as if they were sitting in a nest 
of crystals. 
The eighth of January was a cold day; in a little 
opening in the midst of the woods was a covey of 
snowbirds, and, incredible as it may seem, several 
of them stood in the selfsame tracks in the snow, so 
long that my own feet actually got frost-bitten while 
I watched them, although I wore three pairs of 
