64 Birds of Lakeside and Prairie 



nois but it cannot be that they occur in anything like the 

 numbers in which they are found in the same latitude in 

 Michigan. Friends have occasionally told me of the visits 

 paid by white-breasted nuthatches to January breakfast 

 tables spread with suet for the benefit of the winter birds. It 

 was never my luck, although I have made many a cold-weather 

 trip for the purpose, to find one of these feathered acrobats 

 within range of my rambles. It may go without saying, per- 

 haps, that the bird is abundant on the west side of the lake in 

 fall and spring. 



While we kept to the highways we found the nuthatches 

 on nearly every tree that grew along our course. They flew 

 from trunk to trunk as though they were using the line of the 

 road as a guide for a journey, but were making frequent stops 

 at eating-houses along the way. The nuthatches were as 

 silent as the kinglets were noisy. Only occasionally would a 

 vigorous "quank, quank," break the stillness of the frosty 

 air. 



From the time we left the village behind I had seen 

 almost constantly large flocks of birds flying over the fields 

 but always keeping beyond the limit of identification. I 

 asked my driver friend what they were, and he said, "Snow- 

 birds." When I asked him what kind of snowbirds, he said, 

 "Why, just snowbirds." By and by when the road turned 

 suddenly around the corner of some woods we came on to a 

 flock of the birds feeding in some bushes and on the ground 

 which had been cleared of snow for some distance by the 

 wind. The birds were not more than forty feet from us, and 

 there were several hundreds of them. I asked my companion 

 to take a good look and tell me what they were. He looked 

 and again said, ' ' Snowbirds, ' ' adding that that was what every- 



