NEW GLEANINGS IN OLD FIELDS 



the fight. Not a bit daunted are they at the fearful 

 odds against them; the woods and groves seem as 

 barren as deserts, the earth is piled with snow, the 

 trees snap with the cold — no stores, no warmth 

 anywhere, yet here are 



"these atoms in full breath 

 Hurling defiance at vast death." 



They are as cheery and active as if on a summer 

 holiday. 



The birds are sure to find the tidbit you put out 

 for them on the tree in front of your window, be- 

 cause, sooner or later, at this season, they visit 

 every tree. The picking is very poor and they work 

 their territory over and over thoroughly. No tree 

 in field or grove or orchard escapes them. The won- 

 der is that in such a desert as the trees appear to be 

 in winter, in both wood and field, these Uttle adven- 

 turers can subsist at all. They reap a, to us, invisible 

 harvest, but the rough dry bark of the trees is not 

 such a barren waste as it seems. The amount of ani- 

 mal food in the shape of minute insects, eggs, and 

 larvse tucked away in cracks and crevices must be 

 considerable, and, by dint of incessant peeping and 

 prying into every seam and break in the bark, they 

 get fuel enough to keep their delicate machinery 

 going. 



The brown creeper, with his long, slender, de- 

 curved bill, secures what the chickadee, with his 



215 



