Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-15
Birds of Winter.

| ! There are no more winsome guests in win l ter than the graceful little snow birds What beautiful, perfectly finished pieces of natures workmanship they are! How intense is tLe lustre of their tiny hawk eyes! What vivid I ray of intelligence darts from those electric | life-centers! All birds impress us with a l keen sense of their abounding vitality; but | the snow bird is one of those in which we rec ognize a something closely akin to an acutely l sensitive, delicately organized human being. There is dreamy suggestion of poetic beau l ty about the fairy like little creatures. The l pure ivory whiteness of their slender bill, so daintily turned, so smoothly polished, trans lucent and pinky in the sunlight, is a unique mark of aristocratic distinction.
 Of different race from these mild and gentle pets are the pugnacious English spar rows who battle so fercely over the posses sion of a bigger crumb or 8 fuller grain They are of the earth, earthly; and their chat
 terings, their seedlings ard squabbles are quite as commonplace as those of their hu-
 man brothers. Crowding to the feeding
 ground in noisy focks, they settle down con
 tentedly to the repast each fluffy little ball
 of feathers strongly relieved against the snow,
 then rising with many fiutterings and chirp-
 ings they circle merrily in the welcome gleams
 of winter sunshine, leaving the snowy sur
 face just trodden so diligently by them GOV
 cred with an intricate pattern of delicate net
 work, the markings made by those slender
 but busy little feet of theirs.
 The chicadee or titmouse, that tiny bird
 whose cheery courage in braving the rigors
 of our winter Emerson has shown forth
 in the crystal mirror of his verse, is our oc- casional guest at this season. In his thick plumage of gray and black, relieved with
 white so suggestive in its color and texture of the furs worn by some Arctic explorer, he brayely makes his way through the snowy woods perching now and again, while his nhol- lenge to all the powers of the air that wait in the train of old Winter, and do his bidding. Ice, frost, snow, sleet, hail, rain, he cheer fully meets them all undaunted. Whether the storm cloud darkens the air with smoth- ering flakes, or whether the spirit of piercing cold, whose touch is stab. and whose grasp is death, walks abroad, the radiant heart of the chicadee beats unchilled and his clear note still sounds on in triumph of gayety. What fiery spark of vitality burns in the breast of these least of creatures
 Here moves this atom in full breath
 Hurling defiance at vast deatA.s
 But passing from the chicadee to another bird of the same race, the downy woodpecker, we can but pay homage in our strongest terms of admiration to so exquisite a crea- ture an incarnation of nature's most dainty and luxurious mood. My lord is assuredly one of the darlings of luxury. The adjective downy, which descriptive science has applied to him, exactly suggests the texture and gloss of his wonderful plumage. This prince of the woodpeckers rarely condescends to display his royal robes of velvet and ermine velvet of the richest. jettiest dye, ermine of the purest, intensest whiteness-in the plebeian precincts of our dooryards but on some damp November morning you may hear his high, insistent, repeated note, and glanc- ing out you will discover this feathered aris- tocrat 1uttering about with an assured air of domination among the leafess branches, while he taps on the bark with his powerful bill, after the characteristic manner of his race. He is scarcely larger than robin, though his white plumage enhances his apparent size :; and his mottled markings even suggest some thing as familiar as the feathers of the silver spangled Poland fowls but no robin much less domestic fowl, ever bore himself with the lordly ease of this creature of the woods. You may come quite near him he hardly deigns to notice your approach, nor shows any more fear of you than of the small birds who gather in humble admiration around the superb stranger, or hurriedly retire before his imposing presence. Fresh from the soH- tude of the deep woods, he knows no law but his own regal will, no domain other than that which he claims by hereditary right. When you have succeeded in prevailing upon this royal wanderer to accept your poor hospital ity, you feel as deeply honored as did any humble adherent of the exiled Stuart, when that monarch graciously supped with his loyal retainer.