90 EVERYDAY BIRDS 



and now, in the middle of October, 1900, they 

 are still in daily attendance. Perhaps there were 

 a few weeks of midsummer when they stayed 

 away, but I think not. One pair built a nest 

 somewhere in the neighborhood and depended 

 on us largely for supplies, much to their con- 

 venience and our pleasure. As soon as the red- 

 capped young ones were able to fly, the parents 

 brought them to the tree and fed them with the 

 suet (it was a wonder how much of it they could 

 eat), till they were old enough to help them- 

 selves. And they act, old and young alike, as if 

 they owned the place. If a grocer's wagon hap- 

 pens to stop under the tree they wax indignant, 

 and remain so till it drives away. Even the 

 black cat, Satan, has come to acknowledge their 

 rights in the case, and no longer so much as 

 thinks of them as possible game. 



I have spoken, I see, as if these three species 

 were all ; but, not to mention the blue jays, 

 whose continual visits are rather ineffectively 

 frowned upon (they carry off too much at once), 

 we had last winter, for all the latter half of it, a 

 pair of red-bellied nuthatches. They dined with 

 us daily (pretty creatures they are), and stayed so 

 late in the spring that I began to hope the handy 

 food-supply would induce them to tarry for the 

 summer. They were mates, I think. At any 



