134 Bird Comrades 



couple of brown creepers, and possibly a flock of purple 

 finches, chirping cheerily in the tops of the trees. 



While, in the spring and summer, birds are to be found 

 in nearly every part of the woods, never many at one 

 place, the opposite condition prevails in the winter. 

 Sometimes you may walk almost a half mile without see- 

 ing or hearing a single bird; then you suddenly come upon 

 a good-sized company of them, somewhat scattered, 'it is 

 true, but within easy hailing distance. Nor do they 

 always remain in the same localities, but move about, 

 now here, now there, like nomads looking for the best 

 foraging places. For instance, on the first of January, after 

 leaving the city, I saw not a bird until I reached a pleasant 

 sylvan hollow at least a half mile away. Here a merry 

 crowd greeted the pedestrian. It was composed of all the 

 birds I have just named, with flocks of bluebirds and gold- 

 finches thrown in for good measure. On the fourteenth 

 of January a company either the same or another was 

 found in a small copsy hollow only a quarter of a mile 

 from the city, while the spot previously occupied was 

 deserted. It is pleasant to think of these feathered 

 troopers roaming about the country in search of Nature's 

 choicest storehouses. The code that obtains in these 

 movable birdvilles is this, as near as I am able to analyze 

 it: Each one for himself, and yet all for one another. 



The familiar adage, " Birds of a feather flock together," 

 is not always true, for in winter birds of many a feather 

 often flock together. It may be asked, Why? No 

 doubt largely for social ends. Nothing is more evident 



