OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



jolly company whirling in the highest wind, finding 

 mysterious delicacies beneath the bayberry bushes, and 

 making friends with the demure Peabody birds. 

 These juncos are our winter friends, and I am never 

 weary of watching their bewitching ways ; but the Pea- 

 body bird makes our home merely a stop-over 

 on his way south. His delicious notes rejoice our 

 hearts from the middle of September until the last 

 of October, beginning in April, when the snowdrops 

 and marsh marigolds announce that spring has come. 



At about nine o'clock one evening in late September 

 I was busy at my desk beside the open window, when 

 I heard a curious scratching at my dressing-room 

 screen; going to the window I frightened a small bird, 

 who took refuge at the next screen and finally clung 

 to the window frame of my own room as if begging 

 to be let in. I opened the window, and without a 

 moment's hesitation in he flew. A tiny brown creature 

 with a white throat and wide speckled tail, a long 

 beak and a light line over the eye. He permitted 

 us to handle him without much trouble. What could 



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