286 SHARP EYES 



stance. Go where you will in the snowy woods, espe- 

 cially after a wind, and their flocks would seem to fol- 

 low you, though without the snow to serve as their 

 background no one ever sees them. 



In an open winter their existence would never be 

 suspected ; but now we see their myriad flocks soaring 

 over the drifts, with their tiny wings fully spread and 

 tail expanded like diminutive hawks, floating above the 

 white field. 



I have said that they are everywhere to be seen, and 

 this is really quite among the possibilities, for the wind 

 is a most thorough sower ; but it must be confessed 

 that when we find the snow literally peppered with 

 them, we may know that there is a birch-tree close by, 

 for the birches are responsible for this winged brood. 

 More than once have I been asked to identify this tiny 

 mimic bird by those who need only have reached the 

 drooping branch of the birch in the woods to have put 

 a million of them to flight towards the snow. So con- 

 stant and pronounced a feature of the winter are they 

 that it is impossible for me to think of the snowy woods 

 without recalling them, and I do so now to satisfy what 

 I know must have been a frequent wonder on the part 

 of many a winter walker who shall chance to read this 

 page, and also to direct attention to those curious pen- 

 dent nests where they have been so snugly brooded all 

 these months. 



The white-birch-trees during the winter season are 

 seen to be hanging full of catkins. These are of two 

 kinds, the more numerous of them being quite large and 

 full, the others confined in groups of two or three at 

 the branch tips. The latter are the true catkins winter 

 parcels done up ready for the coming spring. April will 



