150 Bird Comrades 



his breast, but spreads them out well toward either side, 

 knowing instinctively how to make a broad enough base 

 to enable him to preserve his center of gravity. 



Like the woodpecker, he uses his stiff tail as a brace; 

 nor does he go zigzagging up his wall after the manner 

 of the creeping warbler, but hitches along in a direct line 

 unless, of course, a tidbit attracts him to one side 

 proving that he is a true creeper, one to the manner born. 

 However, the warbler has one advantage he is able 

 to perch with perfect security on a twig, an accomplish- 

 ment that has not yet been attained by his little brown 

 cousin. How cunningly the creeper peeps into the cran- 

 nies of the bark as he plies his trade, thrusts his long, 

 curved beak into the tiny holes and crevices, and draws 

 out a worm or a grub, which the next moment goes 

 twinkling down his throat! His economic value to the 

 farmer and the fruit grower cannot be estimated, and he 

 should never be destroyed. 



The conduct of different birds is not alike upon their 

 arrival from the South at their summer nesting haunts 

 in our more northern latitudes ; some heralding their 

 advent with jubilant song as if in greeting to the familiar 

 scenes, while others are silent and wary. The first I 

 knew of the Baltimore and orchard orioles last spring, 

 they were singing blithely in the trees about the house; 

 but the brown thrashers flitted about slyly and silently 

 for a few days, apparently to make sure that 'the coast 

 was clear of danger; having done which, they burst into 

 their dithyrambs with a will. Out in the woodland the 



