180 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
put the food there so that they may know where to find 
it when hard times come.” 
“T should think the lunch-counter, with lots of easy 
food, would make the birds lazy so’s they wouldn’t work 
’ said Dave. “Pop says, feeding tramps 
everywhere only makes more folks turn tramp, so now 
he can’t get anybody to work at haying or wood-cutting 
for food and fair pay.” 
“Ah, but that shows the difference between wild 
birds and what is called ‘ civilized’ man,” said Gray Lady. 
“The Nuthatches do not sit still and gorge themselves, 
but are busy providing for the future. Yesterday, I 
saw one of these same birds packing away little bits of 
aay 
for a living, 
suet in a crevice under the roof of the side porch, and 
another using the thatch on the summer-house for a 
larder. So it would seem that they distribute the food 
in different places. If one cupboard is frozen up, one 
of the others may be in the sun. 
“A pair of Nuthatches found that the cornice of the 
main roof, under the tin gutter, was in poor shape, and 
kindly called my attention to it by boring into the wood 
and nesting in the space within. Five little birds were 
hatched, and I believe that the party of seven, that are 
so tame and come about the house so freely, are the birds 
hatched in the cornice and their parents.” 
“T shouldn’t think that you would like them to 
make holes in the house,” said Tommy, “for the water 
might get in and do lots of harm, just the same as 
Woodpeckers that make holes in the trees and spoil 
them.” 
“That is where people make a mistake about these 
