WINTER FROLICS. 47 



begun to fear that the pair which had greeted 

 me so frequently the previous winter had been 

 slaughtered by some caterer to the shameful fashions 

 of the day, when, on the twenty-eighth of January, 

 I was gladdened by the sight of them in company 

 with several of their relatives or acquaintances and 

 a bevy of tree-sparrows. Where had the grossbeaks 

 been since November? And if they had gone south, 

 why did they return from their visit so early in the 

 season? Or perhaps a still more pertinent inquiry 

 would be. Why had they gone away at all? It is 

 difficult, however, to explain grossbeak caprice or 

 ratiocination. 



What do the birds do when it rains? No doubt, 

 when the rain pours in torrents, they find plenty 

 of coverts in the thick bushes or in the cavities 

 of trees ; but when the rain falls gently, and I make 

 my way to their haunts, as I often do, they flit 

 about as industriously as ever in their quest for 

 food, only stopping now and then to shake the 

 pearly drops from their water-proof cloaks. In 

 such humid weather the wood-choppers in the forest 

 ~ the human ones — stop their work and seek 

 shelter. Not so these feathered workers, who gayly 

 continue their playful toil, and exclaim exultingly, 

 "Isn't this a jolly rain?" 



In another chapter mention has been made of 

 the provident habits of certain birds, especially the 

 titmice and nuthatches, in laying by a winter store. 

 As if to confirm what has been said, one winter day 

 a nuthatch went scudding up and down the trunk of 



