272 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



insertion of wooden pins, are often utilized as store- 

 houses by the birds, being filled with beechnuts as far 

 as the red-head can reach. They oftentimes stuff the 

 opening full of moss and cedar bark to hide the con- 

 tents. Whether the bird remembers where each nut 

 is placed, or whether it trusts to luck in finding it 

 again is, as yet, an open question. That the red-head 

 lives to a large extent in winter upon this stored food 

 has been proven by the examination of the stomachs 

 of a number of specimens at that season. 



The belief, so common among many persons, that 

 these birds are weather prophets, and, foreseeing a 

 long hard winter, depart early in autumn for a warmer 

 clime, is, in my opinion, unfounded. Irregularity of 

 migration, residence, and so forth, among birds, is, I 

 believe, due almost wholly to irregularity of a suita- 

 ble food supply. 



But our red-head, as he has advanced in civilization, 

 has developed a taste for other-articles of food besides 

 nuts and insects, and has become, in the words of 

 Maurice Thompson, "a cider taster, a judge of good 

 fruits, a connoisseur of corn, wheat and melons, and 

 an expert fly catcher as well." He is excessively fond 

 of ripe mulberries and wild cherries, and in their 

 season spends much time in winging his way to and 

 from these trees. I have often seen him dart from 

 the top of a mulberry or other tree, and with unerr- 

 ing flight catch upon the wing some unlucky insect, 

 and then immediately return to his diet of fruit once 

 more. 



During the summer months he chooses the finest 

 cherries, grapes and apples for his dessert and thus 



