ZERO BIRDS 25 



dawn and dark with the thermometer below zero. 

 Certain gentlemen-adventurers of my acquaintance 

 aided and abetted me in this plan. They all held 

 high office in a military organization known for 

 short as the Band. There was First Lieutenant 

 Trottie, Second Lieutenant Honey, Sergeant Henny- 

 Penny, and Corporal Alice-Palace, while I had been 

 honored with a captain's commission in this regi- 

 ment. To be sure, there was something of a dearth 

 of privates; but with such a gallant array of officers 

 their absence was not felt. At any hour of day or 

 night, to the last man, every member of the Band 

 was ready for the most desperate adventures by field 

 and flood. 



As we left the house the thermometer stood at 

 four below, while the sky was of a frozen blue, 

 without a cloud, and had a hard glitter as if streaked 

 with frost. In a low tree by the roadside, we heard 

 the metallic note of a downy woodpecker scurrying 

 up the trunk and backing stiffly down. Farther on 

 sounded a loud cawing, and we saw four ruffianly 

 crows assaulting a respectable female broad-winged 

 hawk. One after the other they would flap over her 

 as closely as possible, aiming vicious pecks as they 

 passed. The broad-winged beat the air frantically 

 with her short, wide, fringed wings, and seemed to 

 make no effort to defend herself against her black, 

 jeering pursuers. Once she alighted on an exposed 

 limb. Instantly the crows settled near her and 

 used language which no respectable female hawk 

 could listen to for a moment. She spread her wings 



