In color the female of the European 

 Goldfinch is very similar to the male ex- 

 cept that the tints are less brilliant. Ex- 

 cept that the color is I'^ss bright during 

 the winter season the plumage changes 

 but little during the ytar. The period 



of greatest brilliancy is attained when 

 the male is in full song. This period lasts 

 the larger part of the year, for very often 

 three broods are raised during a single 

 season. 



WINTER DINNERS. 



"What shall we eat?" may seem to be 

 a serious question with our winter birds. 

 But the "heavenly Father feedeth them" 

 and it is only when the coldest winds 

 blow or when snow, sleet or freezing 

 rain covers the woods and fields that 

 some of them come begging and stealing 

 of your substance. 



Then leave your gun idle in the cor- 

 ner, except in the case of the English 

 sparrow. You may find that he is good 

 to eat. In your efforts to rid the bird 

 world of a pest, be sure that you kill 

 only English sparrows and harm none 

 of our own sons of the soil. 



Now, during these cold and stormy 

 days when the snow creaks beneath your 

 step, is the season to get a chunk of suet 

 fromi the butcher, and, taking hammer 

 and nails, securely fasten it to a tree or 

 post as a good-will offering for the 

 birds. If there are cats about, it is bet- 

 ter to take a light wire and hang it from 

 the limb of a tree. I say "during the 

 cold and stormy days," for it will be in 

 vain that you proffer your aid when the 

 sun shines warm and the water flows, 

 for the kindly-offered meat will prob- 

 ably receive but a few passing pecks. 



One winter day I found a small patch 

 of the snow dvist, which covered the 

 frozen crust, all marked with innumer- 

 able tracks. Some sparrows had probably 

 picked their dinner from its supporting- 

 nail. Nothing daunted, however, others 

 had seized it and it would be interest- 

 ing to know how many birds it took to 

 make so many tracks. The marked 

 space was about two feet in diameter. 



Though the sparrows will eat all the 

 sunflower seed off the stalks in the fall, 

 they will take rice instead in the winter. 

 One winter I procured rice at the gro- 



cery and mixed it in a pan with sun- 

 flower seed. I fastened the pan among 

 the dead vines on the fence. The birds 

 came and ate. They ate greedily but 

 they ate only the rice. The other seed 

 was left there for days, and in cold 

 weather. At last I threw it away. It 

 seems strange that they refuse this seed 

 in the winter, when food is scarce, and 

 eat it in the autumn when food is plenty. 

 Perhaps some professor will analyze the 

 sunflower seed and tell us why it is not 

 fit for a winter food. 



An apple that has wintered on the 

 tree and passed through one of Febru- 

 ary's freezing rains is about the hardest 

 fruit I know, not excepting a green ap- 

 ple. Its dark brown skin, giving the im- 

 pression that it is rotten, is covered with 

 a thin transparent enamel put there by 

 the rain and frost. When brought in 

 contact with each other or some hard 

 substance, they respond with an almost 

 metallic ring. Who would think that 

 any creature would eat them;? Yet, on 

 one of those very ice-coated February 

 days, I have seen the downy ^woodpecker 

 picking away at the apples and at least 

 giving the impression that he was eat- 

 ing. It is a mistake to think that all the 

 robins leave us in the fall. I have no- 

 ticed a robin picking away at an apple 

 in February. I believe, however, that 

 the weather was more clement and the 

 apples were without their armor. 



Though, of course, the quarrelsome 

 English sparrow gets more than his 

 share of the food put in a city back yard, 

 nevertheless, I saw a downy woodpecker 

 at the suet twice last winter and he 

 surely would have come oftener if he had 

 not been driven away by the sparrows. 

 Irwin G. Priest. 



