58 Bird - Lore 



females, thouf^h probably only one is his real mate. He does not^ 

 however, appear to be partial to either. 



Further on we found what we were chiefly looking for — a flock 

 of lively little Chickadees. I found that I had only a very small 

 supply of hazelnuts with me, but I made the best of them. There 

 was a good deal of snow on the ground, which made the Chickadees 

 unusually tame — being hungry. They would light on our hands, 

 inspect the pieces of crushed nut there, knock off the ones that did 

 not suit them, and finally fly ofl with one — usually the largest. We 

 soon began to recognize separate birds, and gave them names ; such 

 as 'Buffy, ' ' Pretty,' etc. Then our attention was attracted by the 

 queer noise made by the Nuthatch, and this trunk-crawling friend of 

 ours appeared. We think that continued close inspection of tree- 

 trunks has made him near-sighted, because when you throw him a 

 piece of nut he generally just gazes at it, grunts a little, and then 

 looks at you again. My cousin suggested that when he did find 

 what you threw him, it w^as by the sense of hearing rather than that 

 of sight, as he can generally find a big piece that makes a noise in 

 falling. When he succeeds in getting 'something good,' he wedges 

 it into the bark somewhere and hits it with his bill. 



But, betAveen the Nuthatch, the Chickadees, and the hungry 

 squirrels — that would sit up with their paws on their breasts, and 

 their heads on one side, imploring for food, it is needless to say 

 successfully, — our small supply of nuts was soon gone. So we went 

 home as fast as we could, procured more nuts, and in twenty min- 

 utes were again in the 'hunting-grounds.' But we found, to our 

 dismay, that others had monopolized ovu" flock of chickadees ! How- 

 ever, what partly compensated for this, was a good close view of a 

 Downy Woodpecker. There is a pair of these birds around here, 

 which you are almost sure to see,- — either together or singly. 



But it was soon time to go home, and on the way we heard 

 the lively song of the European Goldfinches, and soon found four of 

 them high up in a tree. They are shy birds, and flew as we 

 approached. They feed on pine cones, and a flock of them will take 

 possession of a pine tree, hide themselves in the dark tufts of pine 

 needles, and eat the seeds at their leisure. The only way you can 

 have knowledge of their presence is by the frequent cracking of the 

 seeds heard. For a long time we thought they were Crossbills, but 

 one day a flock of noisy Sparrows came into the tree and drove the 

 quiet Goldfinches out of their tufts — much to my surprise, for I did 

 not suppose that Goldfinches, which I had been accustomed to find 

 singing loudly, could keep so quiet. We also saw a Song Sparrow 

 quietly picking away at some bird-seed scattered there. 



