CROSS-CUT VIEWS OF WINTER. 235 



aromatic drupes so bountifully spread out before 

 them. How bright and smooth their plumage 

 looks ! The broad black velvet eye-stripe and 

 head-crests give them the appearance of being 

 well-protected from the weather by fur caps and 

 ear-muffs. Nature must have been in a freakish 

 mood when she gave her attention to the dressing 

 of these birds, for, beside the narrow, sharply- 

 defined yellow band across the tail, the males have 

 on each of the tips of the secondary wing quills a 

 strange, horn-like appendage, that resembles bits 

 of red sealing-wax, or crimson buttons on the backs 

 of their chocolate-colored overcoats, as if they were 

 marks of higher rank. At times they huddle to- 

 gether in the shaggy trees or roost in rows along 

 the branches to warm their feet, wing-shoulder 

 touching wing-shoulder, and utter faint notes of 

 sympathy while combing with their beaks their 

 plump shining breasts. They must keep their 

 ovens well supplied with carbon, so whenever they 

 think of the delicious "frozen thaws," one after 

 another will fly out from the flock, stuff themselves, 

 and then return to the wax-wing association, as if 

 they knew that in union there was strength and 

 mutual advantage during these winter days. They 

 open their bills so wide that it seems as if their 



