268 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



gregate upon them ; once more the country is 

 " open," and birds and animals can find their 

 accustomed food. 



But winter still reigns supreme in spite of this 

 spell of mildness. Once more the terrors of the 

 season return, this time in a long-continued frost, 

 which hardens the ground into adamant, and locks 

 up the lakes and pools in an icy grasp. After a 

 few days of calm, open weather, almost spring- 

 like in its balminess, the cold returns, usually 

 at eventide, and during the night the frost 

 begins. Its fairy fingers bedeck the trees and 

 grass with almost as much entrancing beauty as 

 the snow ; each twig, and spray, and stump is 

 coated over with a film of ice crystals, each leaf 

 of the evergreens and the privet trees is bordered 

 with a silver margin. Day after day, sometimes 

 for weeks in succession, the frost continues, and 

 birds and animals perish in thousands from 

 hunger. Cold rarely, if ever, kills, so long as 

 these wild creatures can obtain sufficient food ; 

 they are well clothed, and take good care to sleep 

 in warm corners, but when the supply of sus- 

 tenance begins to fail, mortality is high. There 

 is something to me exceedingly pathetic about a 

 starved, dead bird. True, we find but few of 

 them, for all wild creatures, when stricken by 

 death, seek to conceal themselves, and quietly 

 perish hidden away and alone. Those that seek 

 their food in the ground are the first to succumb ; 

 many retire south, many more relinquish their 



