12 OUR WINTER BIRDS 



When the birds come back to us from the south, 

 as many as one hundred and thirty different kinds 

 have been seen by one person in a single day. The 

 time will come when you will look forward impa- 

 tiently for the return of these feathered travelers. 

 The days when they seem to throng every tree are, 

 to the bird-lover, the most enjoyable and exciting in 

 the whole year. But to begin to make friends with 

 the birds in May, is as confusing as it is to enter a 

 room filled with people none of whom we know. 



So let us get acquainted with the winter birds 

 before the birds of spring arrive from their homes 

 in the south. I shall introduce you first to the birds 

 of our threshold, lawn, and orchard; the everyday 

 birds, that seem as much interested in us as we 

 are in them. Probably you know many of them al- 

 ready. 



Then we shall go to the fields and woods in search 

 of the birds that rarely if ever come about our 

 homes. We shall have to go much more than half- 

 way to meet them, and perhaps just for that reason 

 we shall value their friendship even more highly 

 than we do that of the commoner, more trustful 

 birds. 



Birds' eyes are so much sharper than ours and 

 we are so much larger than the birds, that prob- 

 ably birds can see all they want to of us long, before 



