318 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



the day mentioned above it was our practise not only care- 

 fully to save the crumbs from the table but to get chaff 

 from the barn floor and scatter it over the snow. It was 

 surprising how soon these little birds came to expect their 

 food and how tame they became. After breakfast and 

 after dinner they were sure to be sitting about near the 

 house waiting for their crumbs. When they were brought 

 these birds would come in a troop and clean them up. 



Gradually I began to put little bits of suet and pieces 

 of bread, oat meal, etc., on the window sill, and it did 

 not take the birds long to find this treasure. Sometimes 

 ten or twelve birds would be feeding on the window sill 

 at once, and they paid no attention to us even tho we 

 came within two feet of them on the other side of the 

 glass. Every day the flock increased in size. 



But chickadees were not the only birds that came. There 

 were at least two or three other birds that frequently ac- 

 companied the chickadees and apparently lived with them. 

 These were the ruby-crowned and the golden-crowned king- 

 lets. The kinglets are smaller than the chickadee, but 

 can be distinguished from them by the color of the head 

 and wings. The head of the chickadee is black, while the 

 kinglets have either a yellow and orange or a scarlet crest 

 on the head, the rest of the head being more or less brown. 

 The white-breasted nuthatch was also often in the com- 

 pany. We called all of them "snow birds/' which is their 

 common name over much of the country. 



These birds feed almost entirely on weed seeds and in- 

 sects, but of course they will feed on crumbs or even 

 wheat, especially in the winter when other food is scarce. 

 They are valuable because they eat many times their own 

 weight in weed seeds, as well as many noxious insects every 



