THE WINTER BIRDS. 



We are prone to set an extraordinary value upon all 

 those pleasures that arrive in a season when they are few 

 and unexpected. Hence the peculiar charms of the early 

 flowers of spring, and of those, equally delightful, that 

 come up to cheer the short and melancholy days of 

 November. The winter birds, though they do not sing, 

 are interesting on account of the season. The Chicka- 

 dees and Speckled Woodpeckers, that tarry with us in 

 midwinter and make the still, cold days lively and cheer- 

 ful by their merry voices, are in animated nature what 

 flowers would be if we saw them wreathing their forms 

 about the leafless trees. Nature does not permit at any 

 season an entire dearth of those sources of enjoyment 

 that spring from observation of the external world. As 

 there are evergreen mosses and ferns that supply in win- 

 ter the places of the absent flowers, so there are chattering 

 birds that linger in the wintry woods ; and Nature has 

 multiplied the echoes at this time, that their few and 

 feeble voices may be repeated by lively reverberations 

 among the hills. 



To those who look upon the earth with the feelings of 

 a poet or a painter, I need not speak of the value of the 

 winter birds as enliveners of the landscape. Any cir- 

 cumstance connected with natural scenery that exercises 

 our feelings of benevolence adds to the picturesque 

 charms of a prospect. No man can see a little bird or 

 quadruped at this time without feeling a lively interest 

 in its welfare. The sight of a flock of Snow-Buntings, 



