66 HARD FARE. 



game-birds. A man in Chester County saw a fox 

 digging in the snow ; on examining the spot, he found 

 half a dozen quailf frozen to death. Game-birds and 

 nearly all other birds will stand the severest weather 

 if food is plenty ; but to hunger and cold both, the 

 hardiest species may succumb. 



Meadow-larks often pass the winter as far north as 

 Pennsylvania. A man residing in that State relates 

 how, in the height of the severest cold, three half- 

 famished larks came to his door in quest of food. 

 He removed the snow from a small space, and spread 

 the poor birds a lunch of various grains and seeds. 

 They ate heartily and returned again the next day, 

 and the next, each time bringing one or more droop- 

 ing and half-starved companions with them, till there 

 was quite a flock of them. Their deportment changed, 

 their forms became erect and glossy, and the feeble 

 mendicants became strong and vivacious birds again. 

 These larks fell in good hands, but I am persuaded 

 that this species suffered more than any other of our 

 birds during that winter. In the spring they were un- 

 usually late in making their appearance, the first 

 one noted by me on the 9th of April, and they 

 were scarce in my locality during the whole season. 



Birds not of a feather flock together in winter. 

 Hard times or a common misfortune makes all the 

 world akin. A Noah's ark with antagonistic species 

 living in harmony is not an improbable circumstance 

 in a forty-day and a forty-night rain. In severe 

 weather, when the snow lies deep on the ground, I 



