THE INVITATION 221 



to seek shelter about the houses and outbuildings. 

 As night approached, and the winds and the cold 

 increased, they seemed filled with apprehension and 

 alarm, and in the outskirts of the city came about 

 the windows and doors, crept behind the blinds, 

 clung to the gutters and beneath the cornice, flitted 

 from porch to porch, and from house to house, 

 seeking in vain for some safe retreat from the cold. 

 The street pump, which had a small opening just 

 over the handle, was an attraction which they could 

 not resist. And yet they seemed aware of the in- 

 security of the position; for no sooner would they 

 stow themselves away into the interior of the pump, 

 to the number of six or eight, than they would rush 

 out again, as if apprehensive of some approaching 

 danger. Time after time the cavity was filled and 

 refilled, . with blue and brown intermingled, and as 

 often emptied. Presently they tarried longer than 

 usual, when I made a sudden sally and captured 

 three, that found a warmer and safer lodging for 

 the night in the cellar. 



In the fall, birds and fowls of all kinds become 

 very fat. The squirrels and mice lay by a supply 

 of food in their dens and retreats, but the birds, to 

 a considerable extent, especially our winter resi- 

 dents, carry an equivalent in their own systems, in 

 the form of adipose tissue. I killed a red-shoul- 

 dered hawk one December, and on removing the 

 skin found the body completely encased in a coat- 

 ing of fat one quarter of an inch in thickness. 

 Not a particle of muscle was visible. This coating 



