WINTER GUESTS 



The Snow not these the snow-flake? " asked Gilbert 

 Bird White, and seemed satisfied that they were 



stragglers from migrating flocks. We may 

 claim the snow-flake or snow-bunting for a British bird, 

 since it breeds in the Highlands, but more is seen of 

 those that appear in Winter on our eastern shores. 

 Pretty, active little birds, they add a welcome liveliness 

 to marsh and mudflat. Arctic travellers say that against 

 the snow the white parts of the black and white forms 

 are lost to view, and the birds look like a flock of blacl^ 

 butterflies. But when seen against our grey winter skies 

 the white-flecked plumage takes the eye as a flock rises, 

 and wheels compactly, and settles again to the music of 

 tinkling calls. 



AMONG the choicest of our bird visitors in Winter 

 though all too irregular a visitor is the 

 Bird winsome little siskin, a charming study in 



Magicians lemon and black. It haunts delightful places 

 to the writer its name conjures at once a 

 picture of a Sussex forest gill, with alders bordering a 

 stream, and the birds searching for seeds in the trees in 

 pretty tit-like attitudes, all members of a flock twittering 

 to one another as they feed. Sociable birds, they like 

 the company of redpolls, linnets, and other country 

 cousins. The skilful way they hide their nests when 

 building in pines or firs in the North gave rise to a 

 siskin legend that they make the nests invisible by 

 putting magic stones among the eggs. 



A RARE pleasure of a cold winter spell is to fall in 

 with a party of wax wings, or Bohemian chatterers, 



