JANUARY 



29 



The sharp-rayed track of the partridge adds an- 

 other figure to this fantastic embroidery upon the 

 winter snow. Her course Ls a clear, strong line, 

 sometimes quite wayward, but generally very di- 

 rect, steering for the densest, most impenetrable 

 places, leading you over logs and through brush, 

 alert and expectant, till, suddenly, she bursts up a 

 few yards from you, and goes humming through 

 the trees, the complete triumph of endurance 

 and vigor. Hardy native bird, may your tracks 

 never be fewer, or your visits to the birch-tree less 

 frequent. 



BURROUGHS: Winter Sunshine. 



30 



Saw and heard cheep faintly one little tree spar- 

 row, the neat chestnut-crowned and winged, and 

 white-barred bird, so clean and tough, made to 

 withstand the winter. This color reminds one of 

 the upper side of the shrub-oak leaf. ... I love 

 the few homely colors of Nature at this season, 

 her strong, wholesome browns, her sober and pri- 

 meval grays, her celestial blue, her vivacious green, 

 her pure cold snowy-white. Thus Nature feeds her 

 children cheaply with color. I have no doubt that 

 it is an important relief to the eyes which have 

 long rested on snow, to rest on brown oak leaves 

 and the bark of trees. 



THOREATJ: Autumn. 



