CROSS-CUT VIEWS OF WINTER. 237 



are sealed with ice, and the snow is too deep for 

 them to obtain their food, that consists of seeds 

 from aquatic and land plants, they wander south- 

 ward, sometimes as far as the Middle States. It 

 is usually during the first months of winter that 

 they are seen in New England, skimming and 

 whirling over the half-buried stubble like veritable 

 snow-flakes driven about by the wind. They fly 

 in compact flocks, and their dark streaked backs 

 are quite conspicuous against the snow. Each 

 company appears to be governed by a leader which 

 evidently is a restless bird, for they never remain 

 a long time in one locality. Now they settle down 

 in a patch of weeds, and run along as swift as 

 sandpipers on their black wire-like legs, and stretch 

 their necks to peck at the seed pods ; then off they 

 go with a whirr, as if they had found nothing, or 

 feared that the oil in their wing joints would be- 

 come chilled. It is interesting to watch them, 

 they are so wild and free to roam over the snowy 

 waste, picking up their dinners anywhere from the 

 North Pole to the fortieth parallel. 



"Where are their bivouacs at night ? In the thick, 

 sheltering copses perhaps, or under the lee of some 

 projecting bank, where, huddled together, they 

 dream, perchance, of feeding on the shores of the 



