We have often heard of the shrikes, or butcher birds, that capture small birds and impale them on the thorns of bushes. Many of us have wished to see them, and wondered where and when they were to be found. Now is the time. Any clump of bushes or young second-growth is a likely place to find them, for there are two species which visit us every winter and frequent these places. These are the great northern and loggerhead shrikes, the latter being most common; both bear a general resemblance, but differ mainly in size and in markings on the under parts. One can find them almost any day, perched on the topmost branch of some tree or bush, steadily eyeing the surrounding bushes in search of some victim, while on a thornbush near by will be found numberless moles, mice, and an occasional bird, awaiting the appetite of the marauder. Aside from the goldfinches, many other birds of different species, instead of migrating with the rest, remain behind, and are to be found, on almost any pleasant day, in the warmer and more secluded parts of the swamp. Among these are the robin, golden-winged, downy, and hairy woodpeckers, the white-bellied nuthatch, and chickadees. These last are, perhaps, the most numerous of all our winter birds; whole flocks roam from one end of the swamp to the other, and I think there is no pleasanter sound to be heard in the woods in winter than to hear their clear "chick-a-dee-de-de-de" from a score of little throats, or to see them clinging to the branches and acting as familiarly as though no one was within sight or hearing. An occasional meadow lark will be flushed from the tall grass in some sheltered spot, while on the open streams will be found black ducks and mallards, whistlers and mergansers of two species, the hooded and buff-breasted or common sheldrake. Truly, then, with all this material awaiting us, the fields and forests will be found inviting, and you who have never traversed them in winter do so now, and get a new interest awakened in them. * * * * * IT is not long since we spoke of the benefits conferred on the farmer by the inventor. The following statement is a good illustration of our views as then presented. It is taken from our contemporary, the _New England Farmer_. "By the use of mowing machines and horse rakes and a horse hay fork, two boys in Connecticut last summer cut, raked, and helped to stow away 100 tons of hay, while their father was disabled from work by illness. Under such conditions a farmer is apt to feel like blessing the man who invents labor-saving machinery." THERMOSCOPIC BALANCE. BY GEO. M. HOPKINS.