SOME JANUARY BIRDS 



Prim and erect he stands on some rotten 

 stub, his stiff tail-feathers jabbing it to 

 hold him steady, his head now driving his 

 nail-like bill with taps like those of a busy 

 carpenter's hammer, anon speeding up till 

 it has almost the effect of an electric 

 buzzer. Then he looks solemnly with one 

 eye in at the hole that he has made, prods 

 again eagerly and pulls out a fat white 

 grub, gulps it, and goes hop-toading up 

 the stub looking for more probe possibil- 

 ities. Or perhaps he writes scrawly Ms. 

 in the atmosphere as he flits jerkily over 

 to the next tree that pleases him. 



Thus though not of a feather these 

 three flock together in the biting cold 

 of winter days and seem to be cheery 

 and courageous if not exactly contented. 

 They are all hole-born and hole-building 

 birds and when night overtakes them they 

 know well where to find wind-proof hol- 

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