BILLS OF FARE. 



A CERTAIN family in a country town is often 

 joined at dinner by some friends who are con- 

 tent with "just the bones." 



Dogs, you will say; but they are not dogs. Turn 

 to page 141 and you will see one of these little guests, 

 and if you look closely you wdll see that though he 

 cannot get as much off a bone as a dog, yet his beak 

 is stout enough and his eye sharp enough to pick the 

 last bit of gristle. 



He does not come to these people's table, but if 

 the window is open he is almost within reach of the 

 children's hands. There is an old apple tree just out- 

 side the dining-room, and on its branches there ahvays 

 hangs a ham or mutton bone. This is visited almost 

 every day in winter until it is picked clean. 



Sometimes the Dowaiy Woodpecker drills into the 

 tough tendrons, and occasionally a fat bluish gray 

 bird with white under parts — Nuthatch is his name 

 — joins the Chickadees at their feast. 



Where are the other winter birds ? you will ask. 

 Cannot the little Kinglet and the Creeper have their 

 share ? 



