A BIRD MEDLEY 83 



them in the woods, on the ground, and in the trees. 

 And still later, and on till February, they were very 

 numerous on the Hudson, coming all about my 

 house, — more familiar even than the little snow- 

 bird, hopping beneath the windows, and looking up 

 at me apparently with as much curiosity as I looked 

 down upon them. They fed on the buds of the 

 sugar maples and upon frozen apples in the orchard. 

 They were mostly young birds and females, colored 

 very much like the common sparrow, with now and 

 then visible the dull carmine-colored head and neck 

 of an old male. 



Other northern visitors that tarried with me the 

 same winter were the tree or Canada sparrow and 

 the redpoll, the former a bird larger than the so- 

 cial sparrow or hair-bird, but otherwise much re- 

 sembling it, and distinguishable by a dark spot in 

 the middle of its breast; the latter a bird the size 

 and shape of the common goldfinch, with the same 

 manner of flight and nearly the same note or cry, 

 but darker than the winter plumage of the gold- 

 finch, and with a red crown and a tinge of red on 

 the breast. Little bands of these two species lurked 

 about the barnyard all winter, picking up the hay- 

 seed, the sparrow sometimes venturing in on the 

 haymow when the supply outside was short. I 

 felt grateful to them for their company. They gave 

 a sort of ornithological air to every errand I had to 

 the barn. 



Though a number of birds face our winters, and 

 by various shifts worry through till spring, some of 



