THE SNOW OWL'S CHRISTMAS PARTY 137 



" You would never know them in their sum- 

 mer coats, Tommy- A nne, from seeing them now. 

 Brother Bunting is clear black and white, and the 

 Lark wears two black feathers that make him 

 look like a clerk with a pen over each ear, and he 

 has also a beautiful lilac waistcoat." 



^Why, what are you doing here, Chipping 

 Sparrow ? " said Tommy-Anne. " I thought you 

 had gone away long ago ; and you too, Johnny 

 Wren ! " 



" No, no ! it is a case of mistaken identity," 

 they said together. " I," said the smaller of the 

 two, "am the Winter Wren, the smallest bird 

 hereabouts, excepting the Kinglet and Ruby- 

 throat, and I'm spending the winter in your 

 wood pile." "And J, " said the other, "am the 

 Winter Chippy, or Tree Sparrow." 



" You three reddish birds on the top of the 

 perch, what are you called ? " 



" I'm the Pine Grosbeak," said the largest, with 

 a heavy gray body, washed above with crimson, 

 and a stout bill. " I am so named because I build 

 my nest in the low pines of the cold lands, and 

 when winter freezes me out, I come down here 

 to warm myself, again seek shelter in the ever- 

 greens, and feed upon their cones." 



" I," said the twisted-billed, brick-red bird, 



