CHAPTER XII 



RESIDENT BIRDS 



WHEN winter comes and the migrating 

 birds are far away in the South, we 

 still have our good friends the resi- 

 dent birds, that stay with us through the cold 

 and storm of a northern winter. 



Walking under a willow tree one December 

 morning a piece of bark fell across our path, 

 and looking up we saw the little Nuthatch, with 

 its long beak and keen bright eyes. It flitted 

 to another branch and hammered away a bit 

 of loose bark, breaking it away in search of in- 

 sects. Not far away the Chickadees were busy 

 flitting up and down the tree trunks. Bye and 

 bye the Woodpecker came in sight. So there 

 were Nuthatch, Chickadee and Woodpecker 

 doing the very thing that we would pay a man 

 three dollars a day for doing much less 

 thoroughly. 



Later, there came a day of sleet and rain, 

 followed by frost, which covered the tree trunks 

 and branches with ice. What would the little 

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