WILDWOOD WAYS 



haps other birds for sociability's sake, 

 were with my winter chippies. 



The shaking of the snow from the trees 

 and their gleaning among the birch cones 

 had scattered the little seeds which they 

 love so well all about on the snow and 

 soon they followed them. The surface a 

 little before had been white. Before the 

 birds were ready to come down it was 

 spiced so liberally with the seeds and 

 scales that they had shaken down that it 

 was the color of cinnamon. Then with 

 one motion the flock dropped like autumn 

 leaves and began a most systematic seed 

 hunt in which they left no bit of the space 

 unsought. Yet when they were gone 

 you would hardly find two tracks that 

 crossed; they hopped in winding par- 

 allels that never went over the same 

 ground a second time, leaving figures 

 much like the mazes which schoolboys of 

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