WINTER PENSIONERS 91 
rate, they preferred to eat from the same bit of 
fat, one on each side, in great contrast with all 
the rest of our company. Frequently, too, a 
brown creeper would be seen hitching up the 
trunk or over the larger limbs. He likes plea- 
sant society, though he has little to say, and 
perhaps found scraps of suet in the crevices of 
the bark, where the chickadees, who are given 
to this kind of providence, may have packed it 
in store. Somewhat less frequently a goldcrest 
would come with the others, fluttering amid the 
branches like a sprite. One bird draws another, 
especially in hard times. And so it happened 
that our tree, or rather trees, — an elm and a 
maple, — were something lke an aviary the 
whole winter through. It was worth more than 
all the trouble which the experiment cost us to 
lie in bed before sunrise, with the mercury below 
zero, and hear a chickadee just outside singing 
as sweetly as any thrush could sing in June. If 
he had been trying to thank us, he could not 
have done it more gracefully. 
The worse the weather, the better we enjoyed 
the birds’ society; and the better, in general, 
they seemed to appreciate our efforts on their 
behalf. It was noticeable, however, that chicka- 
dees were with us comparatively little during 
high, cold winds. On the 18th of February, for 
