250 BIRD PARADISE 



and lai'ches. They use in their winter haunts a 

 feeble call note, but of course like other birds save 

 their song for the nesting season. They are about 

 the size of the common goldfinch, and appear very 

 much the same, as I see them. I have seen it 

 stated that they sometimes build nests and rear 

 their young in the winter. As most of their food 

 is furnished by the pine and spruce cones they 

 would have no difficulty in finding a supply for 

 the young birds. Some writers state that they 

 occasionally breed in the Adirondacks and North- 

 ern New England, but I have never seen their 

 nest. I frequently see the siskins and goldfinches 

 feeding together in the hedgerows, and as their 

 winter dress is nearly the same in color they are 

 easily confounded. They have the dipping flight 

 of the goldfinch, and the few notes they use re- 

 semble those of that bird. 



Our great flock of crows is now slowly forming. 

 I notice that the regular annual movement of the 

 liost is asserting its power. Somewhere east of 

 us the roosting place has evidently been selected 

 ^nd early every morning the black fellows wing 

 their way to the wide pasture which I fancy ex- 

 tends a hundred miles and more westward. I 



