Winter in the North is a season of hardship and hunger to wild creatures. The otherwise wary and cunning crow often puts discretion aside when in search of food, and fearlessly visits the village refuse heaps, or the farmer's barn-yard. In the orchards you will find where he has uncovered the decayed apples and pecked holes into them. January Ninth Even the mink, after days of fasting, is driven by starvation to leave his retreat in a burrow along a creek or river bank, and to forage upon the farmer's poultry. Poor fellow, he does not hibernate, so he must have food; fish is his choice, but when hard pressed, he will take anything, "fish, flesh, or fowl." Notes January Tenth In the fields and lowlands, the scattered coveys of Bob-whites that have escaped the hunter, huddle for shelter from a storm under a stump or in a hollow log. Sometimes several days pass before they are able to dig through the drifts that imprison them. Should a heavy sleet-storm cover the snowy mantle with a crust too thick and hard for them to break through, starvation is their fate. Sportsmen living within convenient reach of quail coverts should watch over them in such weather and provide food and shelter for the birds. January Eleventh Even the flocks of horned (or shore) larks that feed on the wind-swept hilltops, pause occasionally and squat close to the ground to keep from being blown away. They have come from the North, and after passing the winter with us, most of them will return to Canada to nest. January Twelfth A long period of cold freezes the marshes to the bottom, and compels the muskrats to seek the bushy banks, or to take shelter under the corn-shacks or hay-stacks in the fields. Poor things, they of all animals endure hardship; for one can often track them to where they have scratched away the snow while searching for grass-blades, roots, acorns or apples that have fallen and decayed. Notes January Thirteenth When the wind sweeps over the fields and the cold nips your ears, you are apt to come suddenly upon a flock of snowflakes, or snow buntings. Hastening back and forth among the weeds along the bank, they reach up and pick the seeds and crack them in their strong bills. They, too, like the horned larks, have come from the North, and in March will return again. January Fourteenth You cannot show your friendship for our native birds in any better way than by being an enemy of the English sparrow. He is a quarrelsome little pest and seems to be getting more pugnacious every year. He not only fights the other birds, but he has been seen to throw their eggs to the ground and to tear their nests to pieces. Be careful that he does not steal the lunches that you have provided for other birds. January Fifteenth