OUR WINTER VISITORS. 



53 



taken for a robin's. The shrike, a handsome bird, 

 now and then drives into our yards. If he would 

 only confine his butchering to our British invaders, I 

 should say, May his shadow never grow less! Unfor- 

 tunately he likes a variety in his meat and attacks our 

 native birds as well as the sparrows. 



Anyone driving outside the town may see flocks of 

 juncos or snowbirds, which come in October and re- 

 main until April. They always seem to me too dark 

 to be associated with the snow. The entire upper 

 part of their costume is a deep slate blue with the ex- 

 ception of the white outer tail feathers, which are 

 conspicuous when they fly. The white snowbirds or 

 buntings are less common, though farmers see them 

 on the meadows, and travelers now and then report 

 them from the roadside. They are an Arctic bird, 

 drifting down here in our coldest weather, and their 

 coming usually presages a storm. I recall one beau- 

 tiful flock, as plump as pigeons, which I saw on Wash- 

 ington ? s birthday, 1896, near St. Paul's School. By a 

 curious coincidence I saw a similar flock in almost 

 the same spot on that very day, nine years later. 



The crossbills are registered as winter birds, though 

 the only pair I ever saw were in a village street in 

 Wakefield one August afternoon. The rosy pine 



