A Window in Arcady 
nuthatch and makes it very easy of identification in winter. 
Another busy bird in the winter trees is the brown 
creeper, which invariably begins at the lower part of the 
tree and works upward, then flies downward to the base 
of another tree and starts up again. Unlike the nut¬ 
hatch it takes no chances of a rush of blood to the head. 
November 20. —In our country rambles we sometimes 
notice a neat little pile of feathers and bones bleaching 
upon the ground in the woods or by a fence, and, if we are 
disposed to speculate upon its reason for being, we prob¬ 
ably pronounce it the remains of a worn-out bird that has 
fallen dead by thfe way long ago. As a matter of fact, 
these deposits represent what is left of some unlucky 
sparrow or tom-tit after an owl has breakfasted upon him. 
Master Owl’s table manners are by no means of the po¬ 
litest, and when he captures his prey he simply swallows it 
whole at one gulp and sits solemnly upon his perch until 
his digestive apparatus has assimilated all of that parti¬ 
cular bird that is good for an owl. That point reached 
he opens his mouth and ejects from it in a small wad the 
indigestible bones and feathers which have attracted our 
attention, and then, like Oliver Twist, he is ready for 
more. 
Now, that the leaves have fallen from deciduous tree 
and shrub, many a plant becomes conspicuous that we 
passed by unnoticed in the leafy season. Among such 
not the least picturesque is one which country people still 
call by the name the Indians gave it, the pipsissewa. It is 
a low evergreen, with glossy foliage, common in wood¬ 
lands, and so great faith had the aborigines in its medicinal 
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