242 NATURE'S DREAMS 



The mystery of unceasing life and growth is all 

 about, as persistent on the bleak plain and in the 

 naked woods of winter as in the season of crowding 

 foliage and many-tinted flowers. As if to more loudly 

 proclaim the all-pervading activity of winter, there 

 is a distressing commotion among the Chickadees 

 and Juncoes in the near Hemlocks. The Kinglets, 

 too, in the naked top of an Elm, are suddenly alarmed. 

 They cannot fear the Black Squirrel bounding over 

 the snow to shelter among the Spruces. The Hawk 

 circling away overhead does not account for their 

 trepidation. There is the enemy, a skulking but 

 determined and wicked-eyed Shrike, conspicuous 

 in black and white, flapping his course under the 

 lower branches and looking for his prey among the 

 hardy feathered inhabitants of the winter woods. 

 With perpetual life and growth comes its inseparable 

 complement, perpetual destruction. 



