WINTER BIRDS ABOUT BOSTON. 209 



seems to enjoy his bad temper), and, all in all, 

 is not to be lightly esteemed in a time when 

 bright feathers are scarce. 



As for the jay's sable relatives, they are the 

 most conspicuous birds in the winter landscape. 

 You may possibly walk to Brookline and back 

 without hearing a chickadee, or a blue jay, or 

 even a goldfinch ; but you will never miss sight 

 and sound of the crows. Black against white 

 is a contrast hard to be concealed. Sometimes 

 they are feeding in the street, sometimes stalk- 

 ing about the marshes ; but oftenest they are 

 on the ice in the river, near the water's edge. 

 For they know the use of friends, although they 

 have never heard of Lord Bacon's " last fruit of 

 friendship," and would hardly understand what 

 that provident philosopher meant by saying 

 that " the best way to represent to life the man- 

 ifold use of friendship is to cast and see how 

 many things there are which a man cannot do 

 himself." How aptly their case illustrates the 

 not unusual coexistence of formal ignorance 

 with real knowledge ! Having their Southern 

 brother's fondness for fish without his skill in 

 catching it, they adopt a plan worthy of the 

 great essayist himself, they court the society 

 of the gulls ; and with a temper eminently phil- 

 osophical, not to say Baconian, they cheerfully 

 sit at their patrons' second table. From the 



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