THE BIRD-LIFE OF A YEAR. 
BASED ON OBSERVATIONS MADE IN THE VICINITY OF NEW 
YORK CITY. 
JANUARY. 
Prosasty during no other month is there less 
movement among our birds than in January. All 
the regular Winter Visitants have come; the Fall - 
Migrants, which may have lingered until December, — 
have gone, and the earliest Spring Migrants will not 
arrive before the latter part of February or early in 
March. In fact, January is the only month in the 
year in which, as a rule, some birds do not arrive 
or depart. This rule, however, may be broken by 
such irregular birds as the Pine Grosbeak and Red- 
poll, and, south of the latitude of New York city, 
by the Snowflake and Crossbill, birds which are 
wholly absent some winters and abundant others. - 
The only birds usually to be found in January, 
therefore, are the Permanent Residents and regu- 
lar Winter Visitants. Singing, mating, nesting, 
molting, migrating—events which, in their season, 
play so important a part in a bird’s life—do not con- 
cern the birds of January. With them food is the 
one important question, and their movements at this 
season are governed solely by the food supply. 
Snow may fall and winds may blow, but as long as 
the birds find sufficient to eat, they give small heed 
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