Where Town and Country Meet 



fellows are these buntings, with their black 

 heads and throats, white breasts streaked 

 with black, dusky wings, bright yellow bills, 

 and coal-black legs and feet. Away they go 

 in a rustling bunch, as I step into the clear 

 ing, their infinitesimal chirp sounding like 

 a chorus of tiny fifes. I wonder what 

 brought them here into the woods, since 

 they are commonly frequenters of the weedy 

 pastures and the cleared hillsides ? Perhaps 

 some crumbs from the woodchoppers' lunch, 

 long since scattered, and detected by these 

 little foragers of the air, heaven knows how. 

 But surely, if any creatures need omniscient 

 senses to guide them to sustenance in this 

 wilderness of snow, it is the delicate and 

 tender and timid birds. 



194 



