92 EVERYDAY BIRDS 



example, we had a blizzard, with driving snow, 

 the most inclement day of the winter. At seven 

 o'clock, when I looked out, four downy wood- 

 peckers were in the elm, all trying their best to 

 eat, though the branches shook till it was hard 

 work to hold on. They stayed much of the 

 forenoon. At ten o'clock, when the storm 

 showed signs of abating, though it was still wild 

 enough, a chickadee made his appearance and 

 whistled Phoebe again and again "a long 

 time," my note says in his cheeriest manner. 

 Who can help loving a bird so courageous, " so 

 frolic, stout, and self-possest " ? Emerson did 

 well to call him a " scrap of valor." Yet I find 

 from a later note that " there were nothing like 

 the usual number of chickadees so long as the 

 fury lasted." Doubtless most of them stayed 

 among the evergreens. It is an old saying of 

 the chickadee's, frequently quoted, " Be bold, 

 be bold, but not too bold." On the same day I 

 saw a member of the household snowballing an 

 English sparrow away from one branch, while 

 a downy woodpecker continued to feed upon the 

 next one. The woodpecker had got the right 

 idea of things. Honest folk need not fear the 

 constable. 



