26S 



NATURE'S CALENDAR 



December 26 



gent and keen-eyed observers at irregular 

 intervals; but there is a long list, as has 

 been mentioned elsewhere, of resident 

 birds that stay through the cold weather 

 or come to us in great numbers from 

 Canada. 



But one need not seek for these rarities, 

 thinking that otherwise there is nothing 

 to study. There are lots of things to be 

 learned about our common winter birds, 

 such as the woodpeckers. John Bur- 

 roughs was quite right in his assertion 

 that " it seems not to be generally known " 

 that certain of our woodpeckers — probably 

 all the winter residents — each fall exca- 

 vate a limb or the trunk of a tree in which 

 to pass the winter, and that the cavity is 

 abandoned in the spring, probably for a 

 new one in which nidification takes place. 

 "So far as I have observed," he remarks, 

 "these cavities are drilled out only by the 

 males. Where the females take up their 

 quarters I am not so well informed, 

 though I expect that they use the aban- 

 doned holes of the males of the previous 

 year." . . . Such a cavity makes a snug, 

 warm home, and when the entrance is on 

 the underside of the limb, as is usual, the 

 wind and snow cannot reach the occu- 

 pant." 



It remained for a still more recent 

 time, and for another unprofessional bird- 

 observer to teach us the food of the 

 chickadee, whose winter hardihood has 

 been so much admired. It finds an abun- 



December 27 



