404 WINTER SUBSISTENCE 



plicated still. How utterly inconceivable then are 

 the labours, the contrivances, the combinations, that 

 are going forward, and accomplishing, in this our 

 dull season of the year, in that host of nature's 

 productions with which, shortly, we shall every- 

 where be surrounded ! 



Jan. 20th. A keen frost, and the ground covered 

 with snow, presents a scene of apparent suffering 

 and want to many of our poor little birds; but the 

 preservation of the fowls of the air, which sow not 

 nor gather into barns, has been beautifully in- 

 stanced to us, as a manifest evidence of a superin- 

 tending providence : the full force of this testimony 

 is most strongly impressed upon us in a season like 

 this, when winter rules with rigour, and we marvel 

 how the life of these beings can be supported when 

 the waters are bound up, and earth and all its 

 products hidden by a dense covering of snow. 

 Many of the small birds obtain subsistence by pick- 

 ing the refuse of our corn-stacks, by seeds scattered 

 about our home-stalls and cattle-yards, but multi- 

 tudes of others are in no way dependent upon man 

 for shelter or support, do not even approach his 

 dwelling, but are maintained by the universal 

 bounty of providence ; as the wood-lark, the mea- 

 dow-lark, the chats, and several others ; but by 

 what means they are maintained in a period like 

 this is not quite manifest. The portion that they 

 require is probably small, yet it must be insect 



