Birds of the Snow 



[FIRST WEEK 



traveller in the desert is ever watched by the distant 

 buzzards. Finally when the intrepid climber, at the 

 risk of life and limb, has painfully made his way to 

 the summit of the most lofty peak, far, far above him, 

 in the blue expanse of thin air, he can distinguish the 

 form of a majestic eagle or condor. 



At the approach of winter the flowers and insects 



about us 

 die, but 

 most of 

 the birds 



take wing and fly to a 

 more temperate cli- 

 mate, while their place is filled 

 with others which have spent 

 the summer farther to the north. 

 Thus without stirring from our 

 doorway we may become 

 acquainted with many 

 species whose sum- 

 mer homes are 

 hundreds of miles 

 awav. 



BROWN CREEPER 



No time is more propitious or advisable for the amateur 

 bird lover to begin his studies than the first of the year. 

 Bird life is now reduced to its simplest terms in numbers 

 and species, and the absence of concealing foliage, together 

 with the usual tameness of winter birds, makes identifica- 

 tion an easy matter. 



In January and the succeeding month we have with us 



