48 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



one may find in midwinter among the mountains 

 numbers of our common birds who evidently take the 

 chances of freezing where food is so plentiful. The 

 choke cherries tempt the birds to make a late stay in 

 the autumn ; then, when choke, black, and bird or red 

 cherries are all gone, the red winter fruits, winter- 

 green and partridge berries, still remain scattered 

 over the woodland floors and about the clearings, so 

 the birds stay. 



In the Adirondack woods also there is no end of 

 food for the birds ; here we will find the black alder 

 (Ilex verticillata\ smooth winterberry (Ilex Icevigata), 

 mountain holly (Nemopanthes fascicularis\ partridge 

 berry (Mitchella repens\ wintergreen (Gaultheria 

 procumbens), creeping snowberry (Chiogenes serpyl- 

 lifolia), and bearberry (Arctostaphylos Uva- Ursi). 

 These, and many other seeds and berries too numer- 

 ous to mention, are plentifully scattered through the 

 Northern forests and clearings, and as late as the end 

 of winter there is still food enough left to keep 

 bevies of birds from starvation. It should not be 

 forgotten, too, that the birds relish the seeds of the 

 coniferous trees, and when the forest floor is hidden 

 with snow the pine-tree cones furnish small granaries 

 for them. 



The second subfamily (Hose) consists entirely of 

 shrubs or herbs. It is an interesting division because 



