JAN VARY. 29 



genera so different as monkeys, apes, orangs, and baboons, 

 the dog, cat, horse, elephant, rabbit and squirrel, the 

 parrot, mocking-bird, starling, magpie, and goose, not only 

 perpetrate practical jokes on each other, or on man, but 

 they enter thoroughly into the spirit of the joke or fun ; 

 they enjoy, exult in, their or its success." To this view of 

 the question I heartily subscribe. 



But not all of our winter birds are clumsy in the 

 snow, if blue jays really are, and before this merry group 

 of them passed on to deeper recesses of the wood I saw 

 a ruby-crowned kinglet. Perfectly fearless, it came almost 

 within reach of my hand and, leisurely flitting from branch 

 to branch of clustered spice- wood bushes, disturbed noth- 

 ing that it touched, and, as I found by careful examina- 

 tion, scarcely left its mark, and never a foot-print, as it 

 rested on the delicate ridges of snow. What the bird 

 found to eat I leave the world to conjecture, but if this 

 lone kinglet was hungry, it was not unhappy, and occa- 

 sionally sang so clearly, sweetly, and with so much earnest- 

 ness as to be suggestive of June rather than January. 



One word more concerning this species of kinglet. I 

 was near enough to identify it beyond question. This is 

 really not an important matter, but I recalled then, as I 

 do now, that it has been stricken off the list of New Jer- 

 sey birds, or of winter residents upon what authority, 

 I do not know ; but, notwithstanding this, the bird re- 

 mains with us every winter, and is so happy when clam- 

 bering about our waste places, or insect-hunting among 

 the evergreens on the lawn, that no one would suspect 

 that it was transgressing any law of migration. 



That snowy day I would rather have remained where 

 I then stood, and kept the pretty kinglet near me, but of 

 course could offer him no inducement to remain. Like 

 the jays, he too moved on, and it remained for me to 

 follow their example ; this, indeed, was all I could do if 



