42 In Touch with Nature. 



this year have I seen a cross-bill when peering 

 into the thick-set cedars or watching the myriads 

 of small birds that frequent the pines ; yet a dead 

 one was picked up in a lane near by. Where did 

 they come from? Just beyond the outskirts of 

 every region there are novelties that only the 

 favored few who never rest from rambling occa- 

 sionally see. How quickly the Canadian fauna 

 can overlap its bounds and make, literally, a fly- 

 ing visit to Carolinian territory and return is one 

 of those features of bird-life not of importance in 

 itself, but as certain to excite wonderment as 

 its occurrence gives pleasure to those who wit- 

 ness it. 



Why, then, complain at this return of winter ? 

 It quickens the pulse, and that, too, of every bird 

 that braves its rigors. This is a soothing thought. 

 It is worth wading knee-deep through a snow- 

 bank to hear the cardinal red-bird whistle. There 

 is one now perched near the river-bank, and his 

 clear notes float even across the wide waters, and 

 that faint melody that the wind brings from the 

 opposite shore is, I fancy, the answering call of 

 another of his kind. 



