Where Town and Country Meet 



distance from one another, they kept per 

 fectly still. I saw one of them, a little 

 later, make a short flight through the cen 

 ter of the swamp; but after that I did not 

 get another glimpse of them. I think, very 

 likely, they spent some time silently perched 

 in the trees. The flicker is often very phil 

 osophical in this respect. He will sit at the 

 base of a limb and meditate like an owl for 

 a considerable time. But, if a human being 

 appears in the vicinity, he utters his note of 

 alarm and is off. 



Besides the birds I have already men 

 tioned, some snow-buntings and a junco 

 visited the swamp, that cold Sunday morn 

 ing, and seemed to find it a comparatively 

 comfortable spot, remaining for an hour or 

 more. 



Occasionally, during the winter, a tit 

 mouse busies himself about the edges of 

 the swamp, hunting for larvae in the bark, 

 or a purple finch, rarest of visitants, pauses 

 conspicuously on a bare limb, to debate 

 whether he will venture any further town- 

 ward. But the list of winter birds visible 

 from my window is necessarily small; and 

 it is not until about the middle of March 



74 



