280 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



Christmas repast, I turned over a large log, on the 

 under side of which were a colony of ants and a num- 

 ber of fine fat grubs; then, slipping around the fallen 

 beech under whose limbs he had dodged, I started 

 him towards the uncovered feast. After some maneu- 

 vering he reached the log, espied the menu and then, 

 how he fed ! Turkey, mince pie, cranberry sauce, and 

 all, those grubs and ants were to him, and thus, in 

 part, I paid him back for his morning song. 



VI. 



The subject of the present sketch, the winter wren, 

 is one of the smallest, and to my mind one of the 

 most interesting of the fifty or more species which 

 pass the cold season in this latitude. The diminutive 

 size of the bird, its quick motions, and especially its 

 brown color, resembling so closely that of the dead 

 leaves and grass among which it flits, cause it to 

 remain unseen, unsuspected, and often 



quite unknown to the ordinary rambler 

 Winter Wren. J 



in the w r oods. .Even the naturalist, 



with trained eye and ear ever open to listen to nature's 

 sounds, counts that day a fortunate one when he 

 catches a glimpse of the little creature as it hops or 

 flits close to the ground, in and out of a fence corner, 

 or from side to side of a brush pile or log heap. For 

 it possesses the wrennish peculiarity of being ever on 

 the go, and although it rarely uses its wings except 

 for a short flutter from one bush or angle of fence to 

 another, yet it hops slyly and rapidly about, appearing 

 perhaps for an instant, then suddenly lost to view. 



