AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



Bohemian beautiful and gentle little birds, famed for 

 Chatterers having some of their feathers tipped as with 

 strands of sealing-wax. They are further 

 adorned with silky crests and gold-tipped tails. Sociable 

 creatures, travelling in flocks several hundreds strong, 

 they seem well disposed to one another, and though 

 tame and artless, are quick to raise their crests if 

 alarmed, uttering tit-like notes of warning. They are 

 famed also for their lively appetites, and make no more 

 ado about swallowing a rose-hip than a haw or a privet- 

 berry. The name, chatterer, is ill-deserved, as the gay- 

 looking birds are remarkably silent. 



CROSSBILLS, though among our birds which are familiar 

 by name, are rarely seen as at fitful intervals 

 British they roam in pine- woods. They are remark- 

 Parrots able in many ways, as for their parrot-like 

 bills with the curved and crossed points, 

 and for the variation of their rich green, yellow and 

 crimson hues. They are well likened to parrots, since 

 they use their bills for pulling themselves about the 

 branches, and have a parrot-like way of eating. It is 

 supposed that the peculiar bill allows such a twist to be 

 given to a fir-cone that the seed falls directly into the 

 mouth. They are famed for their tameness, for they 

 will split their cones within hand's reach of a quiet 

 observer. 



MANY active little birds delight in Winter in the groves 



of young alders, watered by some stream, 



The which countrymen call an alder- holt. They 



Alder-Holt are the haunts of restless, ever-cheerful 



siskins, in their olive-green coats, who may 



