CHANGE OF SEASONS AND OF THE TIMES. 283 



yoimg" ducks, between the delay of carrying 

 coop by coop, were killed by the inclemency of 

 the weather. 



The same cold weather also drove, within my 

 immediate supervision, three song-thrushes from 

 their nests, after each had laid only three eggs, 

 or two short of their average complement. There 

 was also another contingency, and that was, the 

 scarcity of worms, grub, or insect food, and this 

 most likely also arose from cold ; and nothing 

 could illustrate this scarcity more than the fact 

 that those birds who had been fed on the window- 

 ledge by me, but had left me with the earliest 

 song of sjoring, came back to me, in that beautiful 

 reliance which it is my great pleasure to establish 

 between myself and every bird ; and remembering 

 where their friend through the winter lived, they 

 tapped with their beaks against the window, and 

 scarcely fled when I opened it to give them the 

 wished-for food. Among them they numbered the 

 blackbird and song-thrush, the chaffinch and yellow- 

 hammer, the blue titmouse, the hedge-sparrow, and, 

 of course, the robins. The house-sparrow came, 

 whether I liked it or not, and snatched pieces of 

 food, but fled away when he heard me rate him. 



