72 BIRD NOTES 



and pecked at him, poor fellow ; and he dropped 

 himself down off the verandah, and has never 

 appeared again. I had noticed for some time past 

 that he walked in a slow and gouty manner, and 

 looked old. Probably a cat, from which he was 

 too slow to escape, drew the feathers out in trying 

 to catch him ; or it may have been the anger of 

 other birds, for I must confess that Joe had been 

 latterly behaving very badly to them. He kept 

 watch over the plate of food even when he could 

 eat no more, himself, and pecked at every bird 

 that came near even the nuthatch. I cannot, 

 therefore, but feel having, for a woman, a rather 

 quick sense of justice that Old Joe probably 

 brought his fate upon himself. But I miss him ; 

 he used to fly to the window directly I appeared 

 in the morning, and was not content till I had 

 myself thrown him a morsel, which he generally 

 caught in his beak. He then used to retire under 

 a rose-branch a secluded corner where he could 

 not be pounced upon to eat it. 



Another chaffinch seems disposed to fill his 

 place, but is not yet quite so confident of my 

 benevolent feelings towards him, though I have 

 no doubt he is one of the two or three broods that 

 Old Joe taught to feed on my window-sill. 



A pair of nuthatches have become very tame ; 

 they look me straight in the face when my head, 



