WAYS OF NATURE 



some of them making a sound exactly like that of 

 the old-fashioned hand augur, others a fine, snap- 

 ping, and splintering sound; but as the cold comes 

 on, they go slower and slower, till they finally cease 

 to move. A warm day starts them again, slowly 

 or briskly according to the degree of heat, but in 

 December they are finally stilled for the season. 

 These creatures, like the big fat grubs of the June 

 beetles which one sometimes finds in the ground or 

 in decayed wood, are full of frost in winter; cut one 

 of the big grubs in two, and it looks hke a lump of 

 ice cream. 



Some time in October the crows begin to collect 

 together in large flocks and establish their winter 

 quarters. They choose some secluded wood for a 

 roosting-place, and thither all the crows for many 

 square miles of country betake themselves at night, 

 and thence they disperse in all directions again in 

 the early morning. The crow is a social bird, a true 

 American ; no hermit or recluse is he. The winter 

 probably brings them together in these large colonies 

 for purposes of sociability and for greater warmth. 

 By roosting close together and quite filling a tree- 

 top, there must result some economy of heat. 



I have seen it stated in a rhetorical flight of some 

 writer that the new buds crowd the old leaves off. 

 But this is not true as a rule. The new bud is formed 

 in the axil of the old leaf long before the leaves are 

 ready to fall. With only two species of our trees 

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