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 like 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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