2o6 
EARLY WINTER 
mantle makes the gay patch of colour seem more 
intense as she pursues the quest of small insects 
among the buds* With the exception of the airy, 
sunny Humming-birds, the Kinglets are the smallest 
of our feathered visitors, yet the Golden-crown can 
secure an easy living through the winter, and seems 
to enjoy every day of its cold silence* From this 
timid speck of living, restless beauty the eye is 
almost rudely called by the hurried passing of a big 
shadow as a Red-shouldered Hawk curves silently 
among the trees to a conspicuously low perch in the 
crowded Maples* One glance destroys his easy 
confidence, for he has scarcely alighted when he 
makes a hurried spring into the air, pursuing his 
devious way out of sight among the trees with evident 
haste and fear* The alarmed retreat of this suspected 
and suspicious bird breaks in rudely on the happy 
equanimity of a winter scene from the versatile drama 
of bird life. 
