248 IN A UTUMN. 



hand closer than is ever possible from my 

 study windows. 



Perhaps snow and snow-birds is too short a 

 list of attractions for a winter-day outing. It is 

 not for me ; but I have never found it an all-in- 

 clusive list. There was never a snow yet, since 

 the days of palaeolithic man at least, that covered 

 the tree-tops, and here the 



" Chic-chicadee dee! saucy note 

 Out of sound heart and merry throat " 



is very sure to be heard, even with the mercury 

 below zero. It accords well with the rippling 

 twitter of the snow-birds, and completes the day's 

 attraction, or should do so. How tiresome our 

 northern summers would be without a bit of 

 winter, now and then, wherewith to contrast 

 them. It is strange, but true, that when the oc- 

 casional rambler takes an outing he must have a 

 whole menagerie at his elbow or votes the woods 

 in winter a dismal solitude. It is seldom that 

 our snow-birds have only the titmouse for com- 

 pany. Given a blackberry thicket, and the white- 

 throated sparrows will be there and how glori- 

 ously they whistle ! Overstaying cat-birds, here 

 in New Jersey, will be a surprise, and their mid- 

 summer drawling will sound strangely coming 

 over snow-banks ; but of late it is a feature of a 

 winter walk. Winter, in fact, is overfull of 

 sights and sounds. 



