I893
Jan.  I0.  my left and as I approached Mt. Auburn Street their numbers in-
NO. 5.  creased until upon reaching Mr. Hayes's place I found the trees
literally alive with them.  Soon after I stopped to look at them
they began flying from every direction into a large white ash
which stands near the foot of the avenue.  This tree was loaded
with fruit and with snow clinging to the fruit clusters and to
every twig.  In a few minutes it supported also more than a
hundred Grosbeaks which distributed themselves quite evenly 
over every part from the drooping lower to the upright upper
branches and began shelling out and swallowing the seeds.
The rejected wings floated down in showers and soon began to
give the surface of the snow beneath a light brownish tinge.
The snow clinging to the wings and branches was also quickly
dislodged by the movements, of the active, heavy birds and for
the first few minutes it was continually flashing out in puffs
like steam from a dozen different points at once.  The finer
particles, sifting slowly down, filled the still air and enveloped
the entire tree in a gauzy veil or mist tinted, where the sun-
beams pierced it, with rose, salmon and orange, elsewhere of a 
soft, dead white and of incredible delicacy and beauty, truly
a fitting drapery for this winter picture- the hardy Grosbeaks
at their morning mean.  They worked in silence when undisturbed
and so very busily that at the end of an hour they had actually
eaten or shaken off nearly half the entire crop of seeds.  Some
men employed in a marble cutter's shop near the tree were ne-