TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 287 



glasses, something said "that was a bird." Ap- 

 proaching the window, I saw several of them 

 sitting not five feet away. I could inspect 

 them perfectly. They were a slate color, with 

 a tinge of bronze upon the head and rump. In 

 full plumage the old males are a dusky red. 

 Hence these were all either young males or fe- 

 males. Occasionally among these flocks an old 

 male may be seen. It would seem as if only a 

 very few of the older and wiser birds accom- 

 panied these younger birds in their excursions 

 into more southern climes. 



Presently the birds left the apple-bough that 

 nearly brushed my window, and, with a dozen 

 or more of their fellows that I had not seen, 

 settled in a Norway spruce a few yards away, 

 and began to feed upon the buds. They looked 

 very pretty there amid the driving snow. I 

 was flattered that these visitants from the far 

 north should find entertainment on my prem- 

 ises. How plump, contented, and entirely at 

 home they looked. But they made such havoc 

 with the spruce buds that after a while I began 

 to fear a bud would not be left upon the trees ; 

 the spruces would be checked in their growth 

 the next year. So I presently went out to re- 

 monstrate with them and ask them to move on. 

 I approached them very slowly, and when be- 

 side the tree within a few feet of several of 

 them, they heeded me not. One bird kept its 

 position and went on snipping ofi" the buds till 

 I raised my hand ready to seize it, before it 

 moved a yard or two higher up. I think it was 



