BIRDS IN WINTER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1895, Page 4

BIRDS IN WINTER.

Cornhill Magazine,

Probably the most wonderful example of avian indifference to frost, or rather of the want of effect of the coldest waters on birds' legs, is exemplified in the habits of the humming birds of America. The diminutive size of these creatures and the extraordinary delicacy of their bones and whole nervous system is notorious. The broad-tailed species, if stripped of its beautiful feathers, is no larger than one of our common bumble beas. Home years ago, when Dr Merrimau, Chief of the Ornithological Section of the American Agricultural Department, was on a scientific expedition in the mountain regions of San Francisco, he encountered flocks of hundreds of these beautiful little creatures and he described their habits in a bulletin which he issued in 1890. 41 They wake up very early in the morning," says Dr Merriman, " and go to water at daylight, no matter how cold the weather is. During the month of August, when the mornings were often frosty, hundreds of them came to the spring to drink, and bathe at break of day. . . They would drop down to the water, dip their feet and bellies, and rise and shoot away as if propelled by an unseen power." And yet these pigmy birds are essentially creatures of flower and sunshine. Truly, the mysteries of bird life are, in some respects, mysterious and (apparently) past finding out. Birds, 1 believe, never absolutely die of cold. J question if they even feel it as man does, and I attribute their invulnerability to the closeness and warmth of their feathery covering. The peculiar texture of the skin of their feet and legs, the fatty plumpness of their flesh, the warmth and richness of their blood, and other purely physiological characteristics. If kindly disposed people, in the visitation of severe weather, take caro to spare a little for the birds, the birds will take care of themselves- and be healthy, wealthy, and happy — and the robins and wrens, at least, will pay back with interest in floods of that melody whioh is indeed a " glorious gift of <3od" to the " poor man's choristers," and which they do not in winter at all events, pour forth in emulous rivalry and for purely selfish . sexual ends.