OUR BIRDS IN WINTER. 



When the da}S of early spring 

 awaken in nature's slumbering 'life, we 

 greet each arriving bird as a harbinger 

 of coming summer gladness more than 

 for any striking beauty in their plumage 

 or music in their song. With their love 

 notes they gladden us and there is har- 

 mony in their active restlessness and 

 the starting into renewed growth of 

 grass and tree. 



But to fully understand bird nature 

 we must study our winter residents and 

 winter visitors. We then see them in 

 their everyday dress and manners, when 

 intent only on the matter of existence. 

 We may say that \yinter is their vaca- 

 tion, when they relax somewhat from the 

 cares and duties of life. Our winter 

 birds are better-natured than are our 

 summer residents, including those which 

 remain with us the entire year, and not 

 excepting the pugnacious sparrow 

 which then becomes quite sociable and 

 even inclined to gayety. I have yet to 

 note a serious case of ill-will or disa- 

 greement among our winter birds, 

 though they each know their place and 

 keep it. \Vhile their vocal efforts may 

 not be altogether productive of har- 

 monious sounds, ye t they are full of 

 cheer. Even the cawing of the crow or 

 the shrill cry of the jav is a pleasant 

 sound in mid-winter. Either the birds 

 were more plentiful the past winter or 

 they were more closely observed, for no 

 less than twenty varieties were noted 

 around the yard and orchard. The tur- 

 tle doves in considerable numbers re- 

 mained with us all winter, and they and 

 the quails have mingled with the poul- 

 try at feeding time, in quite a domestic 

 manner. A meat bone with scraps of 

 meat attached, fastened to a tree near 

 the kitchen window, has been a source 

 of much enjoyment to the birds and of 

 entertainment to the inmates of the 

 house. The downv and the hairv wood- 



peckers were daily visitors, and the 

 white-breasted nut hatch came occasion- 

 ally and amused us with his -acrobatic 

 feats, running around the tree, head 

 downward. The chickadees in unknown 

 numbers rarely failed to call each day for 

 a repast, and enlivened many an hour 

 by their active cheerfulness. A wood- 

 pecker that I was not then able to name 

 and could not find described in any 

 work at hand was a frequent visitor. 

 He was a royal fellow, and it annoyed 

 me because I could not call him by name. 

 I have since learned that it was the red- 

 bellied woodpecker and that they are per- 

 manent residents in Iowa in considerable 

 numbers. Even the juncos did not dis- 

 dain to take an occasional peck at that 

 bone, by way of a change from their 

 regular diet of seeds. But the junco, 

 Labrador snow birds and winter spar- 

 rows show better when the fast falling 

 snow covers weeds and stubble, and on 

 a cleared space on the south porch a lib- 

 eral supply of meal or crumbs was scat- 

 tered. I sat by the window and watched. 

 It w'as not for long. Soon they came, 

 one at a time, by twos and threes. How 

 they twittered and hopped about and 

 pecked at the crumbs. I wish I under- 

 stood their language, for they talked an- 

 imatedly about somiething pleasant, I 

 know. I watched them scratch the fall- 

 ing snow away, not like a hen, with one • 

 foot at a time, but with both feet at 

 once. 



Some bright morning, after a period 

 of unusual cold or storm-depressing 

 weather, one realizes that the jays are 

 still with us, not bv their shrill shrieks 

 of alarm, like the hawk, but by their 

 clear, bell-like call, which is the plea 3- 

 antest of all their many notes, and by a 

 glimpse of their conspicuous, natty dress 

 suits, which make a pleasing diversion 

 in the monotony of winter. 



L. O. MOSHER. 



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