A LITTLE SET-TO. 109 



aside, then drew himself up, crest erect, tail held 

 at an angle of forty-five degrees, and faced the 

 woodpecker, calm, but prepared to stand up for 

 his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of his 

 breakfast. Sometimes they had a little set-to, 

 with beaks not more than three inches apart, 

 the woodpecker making feints of rushing upon 

 his vis-a-vis, and the cardinal jumping up ready 

 to clinch, if a fight became necessary. It never 

 went quite so far as that, though they glared 

 at each other, and the cardinal uttered a little 

 whispered " ha ! " every time he sprang up. 



The Virginian's deliberate manner of eating 

 made peace important to him. He took a grain 

 of hard corn in his mouth, lengthwise ; then 

 working his sharp-edged beak, he soon suc- 

 ceeded in cutting the shell of the kernel through 

 its whole length. From this he went on turn- 

 ing it with his tongue, and still cutting with his 

 beak, till the whole shell rolled out of the side 

 of his mouth in one long piece, completely 

 cleared from its savory contents. 



The red-head, on the contrary, took his grain 

 of corn to a branch, or sometimes to the trunk 

 of a tree, where he sought a suitable crevice in 

 the bark or in a crotch, placed his kernel, ham- 

 mered it well in till firm and safe, and then 

 proceeded to pick off pieces and eat them dain- 

 tily, one by one. Sometimes he left a kernel 



