The Wit of the Wild 



r 



It is among birds that the most interesting 

 examples of partnership are found sometimes 

 with other birds and often with animals of an- 

 other class. That familiar little company of 

 our winter woods the downy woodpecker, nut- 

 hatch and chickadee is a mutual aid society, 

 not only enjoying each other's companionship, 

 but profiting by their varied ways of searching 

 for similar fare, and especially by the powerful 

 pickax of the woodpecker, which uncovers many 

 a tidbit his friends could not get at with their 

 weaker bills. Birds are friendly creatures as a 

 rule, and often nest in companies, not only in 

 rookeries of their own kind alone, but by vari- 

 ous species carrying on their domestic life in 

 close proximity yet peaceably, and all rallying 

 to defend the whole community against threat- 

 ened dangers. Sometimes the association is 

 closer. 



Thus it often happens that the huge nests 

 occupied year after year along our coasts by the 

 fish-hawks will be dotted among the sticks on 

 the outside with the nests of blackbirds, which 

 raise their young comfortably beneath the 

 <* 154 *> 



