Bird Studies in Lorain County, Ohio. 57 



I startled the Horned Larks and Longspurs from their snow 

 beds, early in the morning. With a little volcano of snow 

 they burst through the slight crust, vaulting into the frosty 

 air, only to dive beneath the snow again, just beyond harm's 

 way. This burrowing habit of the Prairie Chickens is well 

 known to all who hunt. The hawks seek out some dense 

 evergreen, or oak from which the brown, dry leaves have 

 not been torn. The owls do the same, or crawl into a hol- 

 low trunk. 



Why don't birds' feet freeze, I have often been asked. 

 They do, sometimes. There isn't much about them to 

 freeze but skin and tendons. The skin is a horny sort of 

 skin, and the tendons are tough. Such material does not 

 freeze readily. When the birds squat, as they do when 

 perched, the feathers form a warm blanket for the feet 

 and legs. A hungry bird, I mean one which has fasted 

 long, is an easy prey for the frost. A bird's vitality is 

 much more quickly sapped by fasting than ours is, as they 

 are faster livers than we are. But for their covering of feath- 

 ers, the warmest possible garment for its weight, none could 

 hope to survive the rigors of our northern winters. 



I have spoken of the few Bluebirds which remain with us 

 all winter. Ten years ago no Bluebirds were ever seen 

 in winter in the county. During that phenomenal win- 

 ter of 1894-95, when the South was swept by such a cold 

 wave that the orange trees in Florida were destroyed, and 

 Tennessee suffered one of the severest weeks since the 

 Civil War, the Bluebirds which had gone into that warmer 

 region to winter, were all but exterminated. They had win- 

 tered in that comparatively warm region for so many gen- 

 erations that when the severe cold did come they were un- 

 able to withstand it. But the comparatively few individuals 

 which tarried in southern Ohio were able to live through 

 even severer weather, and it is the descendants of that hard- 

 ier race which find northern Ohio bearable now. 



What do the birds eat when everything is covered with 

 snow and ice? That depends upon the bird. The large 



