68 LODGING AND FOOD OF WINTEE BIRDS. 



In the early part of this chapter I have given a hint of how small land- 

 birds are able to survive our rigorous winter climate. They hide away, 

 when it storms, in the thick boughs of close evergreen bushes, in hollow 

 trees, and in sheltered nooks among loose rocks and under overhanging 

 banks; or, often, they creep into hay-mows, and under the warm eaves or 

 inside the shutters of our houses. As for the water-birds, they are too 

 hardy to need any such protection; and there are some land species, like 

 the snow-flake, that seem to enjoy the wildest weather. It is not snow 

 and dry cold, indeed, which make birds suffer, but chilling days of rain 

 and sleet. 



For food, the winter birds seek the natural granaries left for. them 

 along the country roads and at the edge of the woods, where the weeds 

 grow dense, each plant bearing aloft a cluster of seeds ready to be picked ; 

 or they search diligently about the trunks and branches of the trees, pull- 

 ing dormant insects from snug crannies, and tearing away slabs of loose 

 bark in order to get at the eggs and grubs that lie underneath. The. lit- 

 tle birds have no lack of food, usually, but the larger flesh-eating fellows 

 have a hard row to hoe in a cold winter. The crows are driven to the 

 sea-shore after shell-fish, the shrikes must use extra skill in seizing tit- 

 mouses and sparrows, hawks and owls often go hungry to bed, for much 

 of the small prey upon which they usually feed keep safe in-doors. 



Thus it happens that an unusually severe season is always marked 

 by an extra number of northern visitors and fewer of our own resident 

 birds, since both are forced southward of their usual line by the extremity 

 of the weather. It is a matter of unquestioned record, moreover, that a 

 very cold winter, like that of 1&80-81, witnesses the freezing to death and 

 starvation of thousands of birds unable to get away from or endure its 

 rigors. As a rule, however, their wits and activity keep the birds of our 

 winter woods not only alive but apparently very happy ; and, in settled 

 parts of the country, more and more are spending their winters with us 

 than formerly, since they find themselves able to get plenty of food about 

 a farm, when, if it were wild land, there would be little or none. 



We have watched "fin and feather" through the bad half of the year, 

 and now let us see how " fur" stands it. Here, as before, the amount of 

 change which takes place in the habits of four-footed beasts, large and 

 small, depends on whether the place where they dwell lies in a cold or in 

 a warm latitude, and also on what animal you have in mind; for here 

 there is less uniformity in respect to the way they meet winter than ob- 

 tains among the humbler classes, where individuality is less developed. 



