A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



little bird. He seemed fearful lest I should 

 think him overimaginative in recital, so he 

 gave me details about the sparrow and its 

 ways which would have convinced a jury of. 

 the bird's identity and strong individuality. 

 The secret of my friend's friendship with 

 these birds was that, by living together, each 

 had, by degrees, learned to know the other." 

 The chickadees are great bird-wags. In 

 various ways they play tricks on other birds. 

 When there is hemp-seed in the box, the 

 chickadees are like a lot of children turned 

 out of school. If a tree-sparrow happens 

 along, he takes possession by driving the other 

 birds away. A saucy chickadee will give the 

 danger-call, which sounds to me like " butcher 

 bird, butcher bird." The tree-sparrow darts 

 into the bushes and the chickadees pile onto 

 the seed-box. The sparrow finding that there 

 is no enemy about soon returns to the seed- 

 box. Inside of three minutes the same, or 

 another chickadee, gives the alarm and away 

 goes the sparrow into the bushes. This time 

 he knows that he has been fooled, so when he 

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