February is the Shortest Month

4.8

FEBRUARY is the shortest month, the next to the coldest. Winter is still with us, but the days are growing longer.

Now, before the young leaves come, it is a good time to study the bark of trees. Don’t peel the bark from a living tree; you may peel it from a dead tree.

Because the bark of the birch tree peels off so easily and is strong and light, Indians covered their canoes with it.

Here is one more interesting thing about the birch bark. With a piece of it you can make a fire even in wet weather.

Many of the birds, which you can see during all the winter, gather in flocks in February.

Crows, which are especially noisy at this time, fly across the fields in groups of twos and threes.

Starlings fly in flocks of hundreds. These birds imitate the voices of other singing birds and even the mewing of a cat. There was time when people liked to teach starlings to talk.

As soon as the ice begins to melt, ducks come back to the ponds and lakes.