ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 



41 



Photo by F. N. Whitman 



APPETITES FOR FRUIT 



The cedar-bird is estimating the depth to which food should be deposited to insure 

 successful response of muscles used in swallowing. Some nicety of calculation is 

 involved as to the force necessary to impart To the food mass to jret it well under 

 way without toppling the beneficiary off the perch. The whole undertaking is prob- 

 ably not so simple as it looks. 



I should not forget to mention the solitary White-winged Crossbill I 

 "met" on December 4. Among the chattering notes of some English 

 Sparrows in the shrubbery I thought I detected snatches of a song strangely 

 canary-like. A nearer approach brought only closer views of sparrows 

 when suddenly the song occurred 

 again and just at hand. Looking 

 up I found myself within but a 

 few feet of a bird scarcely larger 

 than a sparrow, apparently olive- 

 green in color and with conspicu- 

 ous white wing bars. Another look 

 revealed the crossed tips of its 

 mandibles and readily established 

 the identity of the bird. I had 

 time for a good visit with it be- 

 fore it disappeared. I could find 

 none of its companions. 



Bird guests add great interest 

 to our shut-in days and make the 

 winter season pass more quickly. 

 On February fifth we heard 

 the Cardinal's song for the first 

 time this season and later in the 

 day discovered that several of the 

 pussy-willow buds, in a sheltered 

 corner, had burst their hard. 



brown shells and were pushing their little soft gray bonnets out into the 

 cold world, unfailing harbingers of spring. ('Mrs.) Marion Moset.ev. 



Photo by F. N. Whitman 



TREE SPARROW 



