64 GRAY LADY. AND (THE BIRDS 
French no, no, no, and the Chickadees would retire to 
await their turn when the Nuthatches were away. 
The news of the free lunch must have travelled as rap- 
idly in the bird world as gossip in a country town usually 
does, for before long a beautiful male Hairy Woodpecker 
made his appearance, and came regularly night and morn- 
ing for a number of days. Hunger made him bold, and 
he would allow me to walk to within a few feet of him 
when changing plates in the camera. It was interesting 
to note his position on the plank. When he was eating, 
his tail was braced to steady his body. He did not stand 
on his feet, except when I attracted his attention by 
tapping on the window, but when eating put his feet out 
in front of him in a most peculiar manner. ‘This position 
enabled him to draw his head far back and gave more 
power to the stroke of his bill, and shows that Wood- 
peckers are not adapted for board-walking. 
Of course, the smaller Downy Woodpeckers were 
around; they always are in the orchard toward spring. 
I also had a flock of Redpolls come a number of times 
after a little bare spot of ground began to show, but, 
although they ate seeds I put on the ground, they would 
not come up on the lunch-counter and did not stay very 
long. Beautiful Pine Grosbeaks came, too, but they 
preferred picking up the seeds they found under the 
maple trees. The American Goldfinches, in their Quaker 
winter dresses, called, but the seeds on some weeds in 
the garden just peeping above the snow pleased them better 
than a more elaborate lunch, and saying ‘‘ per-chic-o-ree”’ 
they would leave. — F. A. Van Sant, Jay, N.Y., in Bird 
Lore. 
