206 EARLY WINTER 



mantle makes the gay patch of colour seem more 

 intense as she pursues the quest of small insects 

 among the buds* With the exception of the airy, 

 sunny Humming-birds, the Kinglets are the smallest 

 of our feathered visitors, yet the Golden-crown can 

 secure an easy living through the winter, and seems 

 to enjoy every day of its cold silence. From this 

 timid speck of living, restless beauty the eye is 

 almost rudely called by the hurried passing of a big 

 shadow as a Red-shouldered Hawk curves silently 

 among the trees to a conspicuously low perch in the 

 crowded Maples. One glance destroys his easy 

 confidence, for he has scarcely alighted when he 

 makes a hurried spring into the air, pursuing his 

 devious way out of sight among the trees with evident 

 haste and fear. The alarmed retreat of this suspected 

 and suspicious bird breaks in rudely on the happy 

 equanimity of a winter scene from the versatile drama 

 of bird life. 



