156 NEWS FROM THE BIRDS. 



almost always draw them in the same stilted, 

 commonplace attitudes, and appear to forget 

 that '^ variety is the spice of life " — of bird life 

 as well as human life. I could suggest to art- 

 ists a thousand pretty bird pictures that have 

 never been drawn. 



II. 



You may wonder what my little winter 

 friend, the crested titmouse, feeds on in cold 

 and stormy weather. He has a sweet tooth, 

 so to speak, for so many things that there is 

 little dansrer of his famishins:. Sometimes, 

 like the nuthatch, he fishes out a grain of corn 

 from some cranny in the trees, where he or 

 some of his kin hid it in the autumn. Then 

 he places it under his claws on a limb, and 

 daintily nibbles at it or vigorously pounds it 

 to pieces. If lie can find an acom, he disposes 

 of it in the same way, tearing off the shell and 

 eating the kernel. 



There are also the dogwood berries, of 

 which he scales off the rind and pulp, and 

 then contrives somehow to split the jjits in two 

 and eat the small kernels within. The ground 

 beneath the doo;wood trees is often stre^^n 

 with these broken shells. He will also dine 

 on the cocoon of a caterpillar or other worm 



