FRIEND DOWNY 31 



wards whether he was guilty/' says Downy with 

 a wink and a nod. 



Most birds do not stay all the year, in the 

 North, at least, and most, in return for their 

 labors in the spring, demand some portion of 

 the fruit or grain of midsummer and autumn. 

 Not so Downy. His services are entirely gra- 

 tuitous ; he works twice as long as most others. 

 He spends the year with us, no winter ever 

 too severe for him, no summer too hot; and 

 he never taxes the orchard, nor takes tribute 

 from the berry patch. Only a quarter of his 

 food is vegetable, the rest being made up of 

 injurious insects ; and the vegetable portion 

 consists entirely of wild fruits and weed-seeds, 

 nothing that man eats or uses. Downy feeds 

 on the wild dogwood berries, a few pokeberries, 

 the fruit of the woodbine, and the seeds of the 

 poison-ivy, whatever scanty and rather infe- 

 rior fare is to be had at Nature's fall and winter 

 table. If in the cold winter weather we will take 

 pains to hang out a bone with some meat on it, 

 raw or cooked, or a piece of suet, taking care 

 that it is not salted, for few wild birds except 

 the crossbills can eat salted food, we may see 

 how he appreciates our thoughtf ulness. Shall we 

 grudge him a bone from our own abundance, or 

 neglect to fasten it firmly out of reach of the cat 



