WINTER PENSIONERS 89 
The crumbs prove to be appetizing, and by 
the time he has swallowed a few of them he 
seems to forget how he came in, and instead of 
backing out, as a reasonable being like a chick- 
adee might be expected to do, he flies to another 
light of the bay window. Then, lest he should 
injure himself, I must get up and catch him and 
show him to the door. By the time I have done 
this two or three times within half an hour, | 
begin to find it an interruption to other work, 
and put down the window. White-breasted nut- 
hatches and downies come often to the outer sill, 
but only the chickadees ever venture inside. 
These three are our daily pensioners. If they 
are all in the tree together, as they very often 
are, they take precedence at the larder according 
to their size. No nuthatch presumes to hurry 
a woodpecker, and no chickadee ever thinks of 
disturbing a nuthatch. He may fret audibly, 
calling the other fellow greedy, for aught I know, 
and asking him if he wants the earth; but he 
maintains a respectful distance. Birds, like wild 
things in general, have a natural reverence for 
size and weight. 
The chickadees are much the most numerous 
with us, but taking the year together, the wood- 
peckers are the most constant. My notes record 
them as present in the middle of October, 1899, 
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