206 
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. 
