BIRD CURIOS. 31 
the morrow. So far as my observation goes, this pro- 
vident care is displayed only by those birds that are 
winter residents in our more northern latitudes. I 
have never seen any of the vast company of migrants 
making such provision for the proverbial rainy day ; 
and, indeed, it would be unnecessary. To them suf- 
ficient unto the day is the care as well as the evil 
thereof, and so they take their “daily bread” as 
they happen to find it. 
Our winter residents, however, are more thrifty, 
as I have observed again and again. Here is an 
instance which once came under my eye. While 
sauntering along the border of the woods one day in 
September, I noticed several nuthatches and _ black- 
capped titmice busily gathering seeds from a clump 
of sunflower stalks, and flying with them to the trees 
near by. I found a seat and watched them for a 
long while. A nuthatch would dart over to a sun- 
flower stalk, cry, Yak / yak / in his familiar way, as if 
talking affectionately to himself, deftly pick out a seed 
from its encasement, fly with it to the trunk of an 
oak-tree, and then thrust it into a crevice of the 
bark with his long slender beak. He would then 
hurry back for another seed, which he would treat 
in the same way. 
The behavior of one of these little toilers was 
especially interesting. By mistake he pushed a 
seed into a cranny which seemed to be too deep for 
his purpose, and so he proceeded in his vigorous 
way to pry and chisel it out. He seemed to say to 
himself: “That would be too hard to dig out ona 
