MY WOODLAND INTIMATES 



piece de resistance. Apart from the latter article 

 of diet, however, the supplies that I put out for 

 my pensioners are such as they would be likely to 

 pick up in their roadside, meadow, or garden 

 gleanings, and cannot be injurious to them. 



At this season my regular patrons are cotton- 

 tail rabbits, squirrels, robins, grackles, chickadees, 

 juncos, white-crowned, song, tree, and of course 

 English sparrows. I occasionally have a visit 

 from a \vhite-throat, and now and then my un- 

 usual winter guest, the cow-bird lady, partakes of 

 the feast. Later, cat-birds, chipping sparrows, 

 wood-thrushes, goldfinches, and sometimes or- 

 chard orioles join the party, but usually not until 

 the juncos, the white-crowds, white-throats and 

 other birds partial to nesting in cool northern re- 

 gions have left us. At any time I may have rep- 

 resentatives of the most exclusive families in bird- 

 land among the transients, but these eat a la carte 

 or merely halt, much after the manner of humans 

 who stop a moment at the sight of a small or a 

 great assemblage of their kind, and who continue 

 their way as soon as their curiosity regarding the 

 cause of the gathering is satisfied. 

 . My pensioners appear many times a day ; and at 

 the hours for serving meals morning, noon, and 



