KNOWING THE WINTER BIRDS 137 



or else are on the water in " rafts " feeding or rest- 

 ing. 



Especially from Chesapeake Bay southward there 

 are hordes of the various wild fowl, and some shore 

 birds, such as plovers, sandpipers, and snipes, while 

 northward from Massachusetts we may find on the 

 cold wind-swept ocean such hardy birds as the razor- 

 billed auk, the murre and Briinnich's murre, black 

 guillemot, puffin, gannet, the eider and harlequin 

 ducks, the cormorant and double-crested cormorant. 

 Sometimes off Cape Cod during the Christmas holi- 

 days I have had a veritable feast for eye and soul in 

 the abundance of these lonely wild birds, so shy and 

 innocent of civilization. 



Southward, say from Washington, the typical land 

 birds, in addition to some already mentioned, are 

 such species as the cardinal, mockingbird, red-headed 

 and red-bellied woodpeckers, loggerhead shrike, Car- 

 olina wren, tufted titmouse, and brown-headed nut- 

 hatch. A considerable number of our hardier North- 

 ern summer birds are also found. The frosts are 

 only occasional and moderate, and the air is delight- 

 ful with all due respect to the biting, exhilarating 

 northwest zephyrs of the snow-bound regions beyond. 



When we get as far south as Florida, it seems like 

 mockery to talk of winter. To be sure many of the 

 birds have crossed the sea to Central and South 

 America, yet there are many left. The little ground 

 doves are so quaint, the jays, including now the 



