48 
March, 1892 . 
/ ORCHRRDfcyfoRRDEN “\ 
Birds of Winter and Early Spring. III. 
MONG THE birds which 
may be looked for reg- 
ularly each winter are 
three or four species of 
hawks and as many 
owls, and in favored 
localities they appear 
often in large num- 
bers. The buzzard hawks ( Buteo ). com- 
monly but wrongly called "hen-hawks", 
are particularly abundant just south of the 
winter snow fields, in the region where the 
ground remains bare most of the winter. 
It is well known now that their food con- 
sists mainly of field mice or meadow mice, 
squirrels, and rabbits, and that they rarely 
visit the poultry yard or attack game birds 
of any kind. The little Sparrow Hawk 
also is an expert mouser and the term 
Mouse-Hawk or Grasshopper Hawk would 
be more appropriate for him than the name 
commonly used. He may be known by his 
small size and cinnamon and black plum- 
age. and most often is seen perched on a 
telegraph pole or wire watching for game. 
In the same or similar places may be 
seen the Northern Shrike or Butcher-bird, 
with his light grey ba<’k and black wings 
and tail, resembling both in size and mark- 
ings the well known Mocking-bird. In re- 
cent years the Butcher-bird has become 
familiar in northern cities from its habit of 
feeding on English Sparrows, and since the 
latter bird has become such a pest through- 
out our whole country park officers who 
formerly shot scores of Butcher-birds each 
winter have ceased to brag of such achieve- 
ments and doubtless wish they had let the 
winter visitors alone from the outset. The 
southern Butcher-bird or Loggerhead Shrike 
closely resembles the northern bird but is 
somewhat smaller and lacks the wavy lines 
which bar the breast of the latter. Both 
species have the peculiar habit of killing- 
more game than they care to eat, usually 
hanging the surplus on the spines of a thorn 
tree or the barbs of a wire fence, and se- 
lecting some particular spot for the display 
of this habit. Shrikes, like hawks and 
owls, are essentially solitary and are seen 
singly or at most in pairs unless brought 
together by the exceptional abundance of 
food. So long as the ground is bare and 
field-mice are fairly abundant they content 
themselves with these and the half torpid 
grasshoppers and other large insects which 
they seem able to find at almost any sea- 
son. but when such game is hidden by deep 
snow they turn relentlessly on any small 
bird which is obtainable. Usually the brain 
of the victim is eaten at once, while the 
body is hung up on twig or thorn, and in 
many cases never touched again. 
No weather is severe enough to drive 
away Goldfinches, Pine-finches, and Red- 
polls so long as alders, birches, and tall 
weeds remain uncovered by the snow to 
furnish an abundant food supply. Of these 
birds perhaps the Goldfinch is best known, 
especially in summer dress when the male 
wears a suit of brilliant yellow and velvet 
black, with white edgings and spots on tail : but it has no trace of red in its plum- 
wings and tail. In such plumage he is age and little yellow, while it lacks all 
j well known under various names, such as white wing and tail markings. Redpolls 
Wild Canarv, Goldfinch. Yellow-bird. Let- and Pine-finches are marked all over with 
tuce-bird, and Thistle-bird. In winter, dusky streaks on a lighter ground while 
however, all the bright yellow disappears, Goldfinches lack this lengthwise streaking, 
together with most of the clear black, and All three birds rove in flocks, Redpolls 
the colors become dull drab and brownish- 1 sometimes gathering in flocks of several 
hundreds while those of Pine-finches 
and Goldfinches are smaller. All feed 
mainly on seeds which they prefer to 
take directly from the plant on which 
they grew, but they also alight on the 
ground and search there more or less 
for food though they do not run about 
nimbly like Juncos and Winter Spar- 
row's. 
Among the winter visitors w'hich we 
have space only to mention are the Pine 
Grosbeak, Crossbills of two species, 
Shore-larks or Horned-larks, and the 
Winter Wren. Further south are some 
resident species which are noticeable 
Goldfinch : Thistle bird. Fig. 5(2. | winter, such as the Cardinal or Redbird. 
grey, with yellowish shadings here and the Carolina Wren, the Tufted Titmouse or 
there and white edgings on wings and tail. Tomtit, as well as those species — some resi- 
It still has the clear canary-like call-note, dent and some transient — which are alw ays 
however, and still likes to sit on the top of ready on the least hint of warm w eather to 
a mullein stalk and pick out the scanty push northward and be welcomed as true 
seeds, — perhaps from the same head on birds of spring. To this latter class belong 
which it sat in July among the yellow the Robin, Bluebird, Song Sparrow, White- 
blossoms. Goldfinches are social fellows throated Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Meadow- 
and are oftenest found in little parties of a 
dozen or twenty, visiting burdocks, mul- 
leins, and bitterweeds, or digging the seeds 
out of tbe catkins of alder and birch, or less 
often from the cones of larch and pine. 
Northern Shrike: Butcher Bird. Fig. 548. 
They sometimes mingle with the Pine- 
finches which with the Redpolls are very 
abundant during some wnnters and are 
scarcely seen at all during others. The 
Redpoll looks not a little like a Goldfinch, 
but as its name implies, always has more 
1 or less red on the head, especially on the 
1 forehead, which in some specimens is clear 
crimson. A lighter shade of the same color 
usually extends downward over the throat 
and breast and even tinges with a rosy hue 
the lower parts and the tail coverts. The 
chin is dusky or clear black. 
The Pine Linnet or Pine-finch, (one of 
whose names is Siskin) resembles both the 
preceding species in its canary-like form, 
the general shape of bill, feet, wings, and hints and helps. — M. L. Tiffany, Steuben Co., N. Y. 
lark. Cedar Bird, and several species of 
blackbirds. Robins it is true occasionally 
winter in Maine. Ontario, or even in Min- 
nesota, and Bluebirds and Meadow-larks 
stay all winter in favorable localities from 
southern New England southward: 
but the great majority of birds of 
these species winter south of the 
latitude of Washington and St. 
Louis, and come surging north- 
ward early in March with the 
others mentioned. 
Soon the bare wet fields are 
ringing with the clear, plaintive 
call of the Meadow-lark who faces 
you with his clear yellow breast 
and black collar as he sings, and 
shows only his mottled brown 
back and white outer tail-feathers 
as he flies steadiiv away to some 
point of safety on fence post or 
tree top. Bluebirds, already in 
pairs, flutter restlessly from post to post 
along the roadside fence or perch momen- 
tarily on the telephone wire overhead, 
carolling their love songs from morning to 
night. Flocks of noisy blackbirds gather 
among the reddening twigs of the swamp 
maples, mingling their chatter with the 
peeping of frogs in the pool below. When 
at last Robins begin to run about the wet 
grass ground in scores, and Song Sparrows 
chant their precise but sweet little songs 
from the highest twig on every hedge, 
there is no longer any doubt that spring 
actually has begun. — Walter B. Bar- 
rows. 
orchard and Uardkn beats the world for practical 
