SOME JANUARY BIRDS 



The chickadee in his cheery endeavors to 

 take his own in the way of food where 

 he finds it does some surprising acrobatic 

 feats, but they are almost always clumsy 

 and you expect him momentarily to break 

 his neck. Not so the nuthatch. He runs 

 along the under side of a limb with his 

 back to the ground as easily as he would 

 run along the upper side. He comes 

 down the smooth trunk of a pine head 

 down, just as a squirrel does, his feet 

 seeming to be reversible and to stick like 

 clamps wherever he cares to put them. 

 All the time his busy little head is poking 

 here and there with sinuous agility and 

 his slim, pointed bill is gathering in the 

 same invisible food, no doubt, that the 

 chickadee is after. And as he eats he 

 talks, a quaint high-pitched, nasal drawl 

 of yna, yna, yna, that gets on your nerves 

 after a while and you are glad to see 



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