WINTER FROLICS. 53 



During the winter of 1891-1892 many a tramp 

 was taken to the homes of the birds ; and let me 

 whisper that there were days when even they seemed 

 to be dull and commonplace. That is a frank con- 

 cession for a bird-lover to make, but it is the truth. 

 Sometimes these feathered actors have behaved in 

 the most ordinary way, failing to perform a single 

 trick that I had not seen a score of times before, and 

 I have actually gone home without making a single 

 entry in my note-book. But it has not always been 

 so. There, for example, was the twenty-second of 

 January ; what an eventful day it was ! The morn- 

 ing of the twenty-first had been very cold, the mer- 

 cury having sunk, probably in a fit of despair, to 

 fourteen degrees below zero. During the day, how- 

 ever, the weather grew considerably warmer ; and 

 when the twenty-second came, bright and clear, 

 though still cold, one could take a jaunt with some 

 comfort. The sun shone from a cloudless sky, 

 and having put on my warm rubber boots, I waded 

 out through the deep snow to the woods. The se- 

 vere weather had not discouraged the jolly juncos 

 and tree-sparrows, or driven them to a warmer 

 climate. They delight in cold weather ; it seems to 

 make them all the merrier. They were flitting about 

 in the bushes and trees, chirping gayly, or, like my- 

 self, were wading in the snow, although they had no 

 woollen stockings for their little feet, much less warm 

 rubber boots. What hardy creatures they are ! For 

 long distances I could trace their dainty tracks in 

 the snow, winding in and out among the bushes and 



