MID WIN TER MINS TREL S Y. 



9 



lovers of birds are persistently indoors from No- 

 vember until May. I do not pretend to say that 

 a keen, cold, frosty morning is rendered the 

 more charming by reason of the best efforts of 

 the winter wren, purple finch, or white-crowned 

 sparrow, but that not one of them is necessarily 

 mute because the mercury is down to zero. In- 

 deed, temperature alone seems to have almost 

 nothing to do with the movements or habits 

 generally of our birds, either the resident or 

 migratory species. All depends upon the food- 

 supply, and a feast in winter is followed by a 

 merry heart as surely as a successful wooing 

 in May results in ecstatic song. I think this is 

 borne out by the fact that during the present 

 season as yet winter only in name there has 

 been really less activity and disposition on the 

 part of all our birds to sing than when we have 

 had snow and ice in abundance. I worked my 

 way recently through a tangled, trackless bit of 

 swamp, and, while climbing over the prostrate 

 trunk of a huge tree, startled a winter wren as it 

 crept from beneath a smaller log near by. It 

 seemed as astonished that I should have vent- 

 ured so far from the open meadow as I was to 

 see any bird less mopish than an owl. The 

 wren stood contemplating me for at least one 

 minute a long time for a wren to remain in one 

 spot and then gave vent to its astonishment 



