308 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



hieroglyphics left by wild creatures on the muddy 

 shore and in the snow. In following these foot- 

 prints of birds and beasts across the white wastes, 

 we cannot help materially increasing our know- 

 ledge of Natural History. It also serves to 

 sharpen our powers of observation, and to render 

 us more acute and cunning in circumventing these 

 wild and wary creatures of the wilderness. The 

 charm of a walk abroad in quest of information 

 after the snowstorm, either in the woods and 

 fields, or across the vast expanse of sand and mud 

 on a coast where birds are plentiful, is only known 

 to those who have taken it in full sympathy with 

 Nature and her works. To a lover of birds this 

 is an exceptional treat, for many a pleasant 

 chapter of Ornithology is written on these brown 

 scrolls of mud and shining sheets of snow ! 



