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                           BIRDS AND NATURE.
                   ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
  Vol. IX.                   FEBRUARY, 1901.                      No. 2




                               CONTENTS.


    FEBRUARY.                                                         49
    FROST-WORK.                                                       49
    THE HAWKS.                                                        50
    INTERESTING STONE HOUSES.                                         55
    THE ALASKAN SPARROW.                                              56
    THE DOWITCHER. (_Macrorhamphus griseus._)                         59
        All the beautiful stars of the sky                            59
    SOME THINGS WE MIGHT LEARN FROM THE LOWER ANIMALS.                60
    THE GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE. (_Quiscalus macrourus._)                62
    THE EAGLE.                                                        62
    THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS.                           65
    THE HOODED WARBLER (_Sylvania mitrata._)                          71
    MRS. JANE'S EXPERIMENT.                                           72
    A STROLL IN THE FROST KING'S REALM.                               73
    SNAILS OF THE FOREST AND FIELD.                                   74
    THE GILA MONSTER. (_Heloderma suspectum._)                        80
    BIRD NOTES.                                                       85
    THE POMEGRANATE. (_Punica granatum._)                             86
    FISHES AND FISH-CULTURE AMONG THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.              89
    CINNAMON. (_Cinnamomum cassia blume._)                            95
    AT DUSK.                                                          96




                               FEBRUARY.


  Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;
  And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still;
  No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,
  And willow stems grow daily red and bright.
  These are the days when ancients held a rite
  Of expiation for the old year's ill,
  And prayer to purify the new year's will;
  Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight,
  Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste,
  And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed
  The ardent summer's joy to have and taste;
  Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed,
  To reckon clear the new life's sterner need;
  Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!
                                                   --Helen Hunt Jackson.




                              FROST-WORK.


  These winter nights, against my window-pane
  Nature with busy pencil draws designs
  Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines,
  Oak-leaf and acorn and fantastic vines,
  Which she will make when summer comes again--
  Quaint arabesques in argent, flat and cold,
  Like curious Chinese etchings.... By and by,
  Walking my leafy garden as of old,
  These frosty fantasies shall charm my eye
  In azure, damask, emerald, and gold.
                                                --Thomas Bailey Aldrich.




                               THE HAWKS.


Among the birds that are most useful to man may be classed the Hawks.
They, with the vultures, the eagles and the owls, belong to the bird
order Raptores, or birds of prey. Unlike the vultures the Hawks feed
upon living prey while the former seek the dead or dying animal. The
vultures are often called "Nature's Scavengers," and in many localities
they have been so carefully protected that they will frequent the
streets of towns, seeking food in the gutters.

The family Falconidae, which includes the Hawks, the falcons, the
vultures, the kites, and the eagles--all diurnal birds of prey--numbers
about three hundred and fifty species, of which between forty and fifty
are found in North America. The remainder are distributed throughout the
world.

The flight of the Hawks is more than beautiful, it is majestic. Even
when perched high in the air on the top of a dead monarch of the forest,
there is a silent dignity in their pose. It is from these perches that
some of the species watch the surrounding country for their prey,
swooping down upon it when observed and seizing it in their long, sharp
and curved claws. Their food is almost invariably captured while on the
wing. The bill, which is short, hooked and with sinuate cutting edges,
is used for tearing the flesh of its victim into shreds.

Among our more common hawks there are but five or six that may
truthfully be classed among the birds that are injurious to the
interests of man. Among