144 



AMERICAX ORXITHOLOGY 



YorXG RED-WIXGED BLACKBIRDS. 



tasty meal of bird-flesh, and he vents it in a triumphant "killy, killy" 

 that is a surer indication of a safety to his feathered prey then his ab- 

 sence would be. With renewed life and vigor he braces himself against 

 the wind, hovering motionless for a seemingly endless time. 



Two Woodpeckers stay with us throughout the year, the Downy and 

 Hairy. The one is the prototype of the other, for at field range they 

 are marked indentically, and the only difference is in the size, the Hairy 

 being about three inches longer than his congener. Their notes are 

 very similar also, both calling a steely "peek," the larger bird with the 

 greater force and emphasis. 



From the north in the fall comes another little feathered friend — a 

 friend from an economic standpoint; but scarcely intimate with the bird 

 student. For his feeding on the smaller grubs and insects that infest 

 the bark of trees is of great value, yet he very positively declines to 

 receive our advances in return for his good services. He will escape 

 any but the keenly observant eye, being but an ounce or two of brown 

 feathers, flitting leaf-like from branch to branch or trunk to trunk, paus- 

 ing it is true, as no leaf will pause, and, contrary to the earthward trend 

 of the leaf, climbing to the tree trunk in a spiral course. His call is 

 faint, scarcely audible, a distant lisp. This is the Brown Creeper. Far 

 more jolly, naively so, are the gay Chickadee, pufl^y, big-headed, black- 

 capped, little fellows, who meander about the winter woods in search 



