JOURNAL OF MAIM- ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 23 



the top of a spruce scrub, and was three feet above the ground. 

 The spruce was eight feet north of the highway, on closely fed grass 

 land, but there is a maple grove on the south side of the road. I 

 visited the nest August 24th and found three well-grown Thrushes. 

 I went to the nest August 29th and found it empty. This nest 

 was not far from where I live, and on one of the most traveled 

 roads in Avon. The Hermit's nest is built on the ground about 

 June 1 st, and has a set of four blue eggs, smaller than those of the 

 Robin. — Dana Sweet. 



Notes on Feeding Winter Birds. — During the winter a 

 pair of Downy Woodpeckers have been in the vicinity. January 

 20th, 191 1, I saw one watching the Chickadees feeding on suet. 

 This I had tied to the tips of the most slender twigs on the top of a 

 lilac, quite out of reach of the cats. The following day 1 drove 

 nails into a telegraph pole close to the suet tree, and after wrapping 

 chicken wire about the pole hung suet there for the Woodpeckers. 

 ( The loose rope of chicken wire seems to look dangerous to cats. 

 They never go near it.) The Woodpeckers found the suet early in 

 the morning and fed there and at the suet tree. February 8th, I was 

 surprised to notice the male Woodpecker hanging from the bottom 

 of one of the larger lumps of suet on the tree just as a Chickadee 

 does but after an improved fashion. His back was parallel with the 

 ground. He raised his tail at right angles to his back and pressed 

 it against the suet. When he pecked at the suet his beak was 

 parallel with his back, and his tail, pressed firmly against the suet, 

 prevented the suet from giving way before the blows of the bird's 

 beak. He hung there for some minutes. At the beginning of the 

 cold season, I filled a stump, formerly used by a Chickadee for a 

 nest, with corn, oats, apples and apple cores. I also threw some 

 corn on the ground. The stump was situated near the boiling 

 spring in the woods where I find the Pine Grosbeak, Chickadees 

 and Partridges drinking. The tracks around this stump have been 

 very interesting after snow storms. Squirrels, Partridges and Chick- 

 adees, at least, have fed there. After a severe snow storm, the 



