178 Windfalls 



have found nesting in and on one such tree. 

 It would not be prudent ; but I would like 

 to compare it with the memoranda made by 

 some open-eyed observer. 



This day, cool and crisp as frost can make 

 it, there are many small sparrows in the 

 brown grasses between the trees, and many 

 a chickadee, downy woodpecker, creeper, 

 and nuthatch busy overhead. Perhaps a 

 very precise person would say there was the 

 sound of unceasing activity instead of music, 

 but the effeft of these birds' voices was not 

 so commonplace as that, but in every way 

 agreeable, and not suggestive of the rattle 

 and clamor of a crowded city street. The 

 highways of the bird-world were filled, but 

 the busy crowd was more like that of con- 

 tented laborers whistling while they worked. 

 It is cheering to note the happy manner of 

 our winter birds. Not one regrets that it is 

 the dreary time of the year, and certainly the 

 orchard is now an ideal hunting-ground. 

 No storm is so violent but the shelter 

 afforded by the hollow trees proves equal to 

 all demands, and that such shelter is accept- 

 able to birds I have proved by examination 

 during the prevalence of both rain and snow. 



