NATURE'S DREAMS 241 



of the woods. And who can resist a mischievous 

 child i 



A cry, harsher than the most diabolical note of 

 the Blue Jay, comes from a group of naked Silver 

 Birches. It must be a conveniently cold winter that 

 has enabled the blue disturber's rare cousin, the 

 Canada Jay, to travel so far south. The bleak plain 

 and naked trees must seem almost sultry to him as 

 he moves rapidly but solemnly about. The Canada 

 Jays are more serious than their gay -coloured 

 relatives, and they build their nests and rear their 

 young with the thermometer many degrees on the 

 wrong side of zero, just to teach the world contempt 

 for the weather. While watching the antics of the 

 Canada Jay a half score of purple Grosbeaks settle 

 in the Hemlock directly overhead and begin to pull 

 the cones to pieces. In their arctic home they have 

 learned nothing of human destructiveness, so a man 

 is not an object of fear or aversion. They come to 

 the lower limbs and look curiously into his eyes, but 

 seem to regard him as a rather unprofitable proposi- 

 tion. Nature is ever wise. Their confidence, even if 

 born of indifference, is refreshing in a world of doubt. 

 The Crows, wiser in their own generation, have a 

 sentinel outlined against the sky on the tall spiked 

 trunk of a dead pine, while they gather with their 

 friends and neighbours at a sumptuous feast in the 

 depth of the ravine. 



Q 



