THE SNOWFLAKE 



By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



W$t /Rational &00octatiott of auoubon Qotittie* 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 30 



No matter what the weather may have been in December and January, 

 February is sure to be a month wherein winter rings all the changes from 

 soft days, rain, sleet storms to deep, trackless, obliterating snows. If the winter 

 has been clement and open at the beginning, the insect-eating, resident birds — 

 Nuthatches, Woodpeckers, Chickadees, etc., — will be numerous, but if February 

 lives up to its reputation of 



" When the days begin to lengthen, 

 The cold begins to strengthen ; " 



we must rely upon the brave seed-eating birds to be our companions until 

 the first courageous spring migrants appear. 



All winter we have had with us members of the family of 

 His Kindred Fringillidce or Finches and Sparrows that have either come 

 in lingering flocks or merely as birds of passage: the Goldfinch 

 in his sober winter dress, the stocky Purple Finch, the handsome White-throated 

 Sparrow, the sociable Tree Sparrow or Winter Chippy, chiefly distinguishable 

 by its larger size from the gentle little summer resident of the hair-lined nest; 

 the Slate-colored Junco, trim of figure, dressed in clear gray, with sleek white 

 vest and identifying light beak. In addition to these have come perhaps, 

 if cone-bearing trees are near, a mixed flock of American and White-winged 

 Crossbills — those strange birds of varied red plumage, beaks crossed at the 

 tips, and clear metallic call notes. 



In spring we may predict with reasonable accuracy the coming of the birds 

 that are summer residents, as well as the time of passage of the migrants that 

 nest further north, but the comings and goings of the winter birds are fraught 

 with entire uncertainty. Several days will pass when my lunch-counter in the 

 old apple tree, with its sloping roof of old wood that keeps off wet, will be without 

 a single visitor; then, without rhyme or reason, the birds will swarm about it like 

 bees about buckwheat, — birds of all sizes, from the Blue Jay to the merry little 

 Kinglets. Weather, rather than individual will, seems to be the guide and motive 

 power of the winter birds, and this weather influence works in a wholly dif- 

 ferent way in winter than in spring. Fair weather draws the birds of spring 

 to us, but it is to the storm-clouds and fierce winds of north and east that we 

 owe a glimpse of the rarer winter birds that make their summer homes in 

 arctic regions. 



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