32 IN BIRD LAND, 
cold winter day; I think I’d better get it out now.” 
When he had secured it, he put it into another 
crevice, which also proved too deep; and so his 
dainty had to be recovered once more. ‘The third 
attempt, however, proved a charm, for that time he 
found a little pocket just to his liking. To make 
very sure he did not eat the seed, I did not take my 
eye from him for a single moment. The fact is, 
during the entire time spent in watching the birds, I 
did not see them eat asingle seed. ‘The titmice flew 
farther into the woods with their winter “ goodies,” 
where the foliage was so dense, while the birds were 
so quick in movement, that it was impossible to see 
just where they hid their store; but they returned 
too soon for a new supply to allow time for eating 
the seeds. 
One autumn I spent a week in a part of Ken- 
tucky where beechnuts were very plentiful, and saw 
the hairy and red-headed woodpeckers putting 
away their hoard of “mast” for the winter, indus- 
trious husbandmen that they were. A farmer said 
that he had often seen the woodpeckers carrying 
these nuts to a hole in a tree and dropping them 
into it. He once found such a winter store that 
must have contained fully a quart of beechnuts. In 
my own neighborhood the hairy woodpecker often 
hides tidbits in gullies of the bark, after the man- 
ner of the nuthatch. The crested tit also stows 
corn and various kinds of seeds in some safe niche 
for a time of exigency. Several times in the winter, 
when the ground was covered with snow, I have 
