Notes from Field and Study 



335 



just about as tame, while the White- 

 breasted are a trifle more shy. The male 

 Nuthatches appear to domineer over the 

 females, not permitting them to visit 

 the trays until the males have first taken 

 a seed or nut and flown away with it. The 

 male Downy will not allow his spouse to 

 feed at the suet until his own appetite has 

 been appeased. She sits near and keeps- 

 up her peculiar cry in the meantime. And 

 3^et I have seen a Downy, a Nuthatch, 

 and a Chickadee all eating peacefully at 

 the same piece of suet at one time. Pos- 

 sibly they were all males and were carry- 

 ing out 'a gentlemen's agreement.' 



The Chickadees and Nuthatches, after 

 gorging themselves to satiety, carry away 

 and hide sunflower seeds and bits of nuts, 

 storing them in cracks of fences and in 

 crevices in the bark of trees. Sometimes 

 one bird will watch another do this, and 

 then, when the coast is clear, proceed to 

 appropriate for itself the hidden tit-bit. 

 Blue Jays and squirrels do the same, and 

 I have often observed them pilfering 

 from each other. The Nuthatches some- 

 times hide morsels in the cracks of the 

 very food-trays from which they get their 

 regular meals, and when one discovers 

 what another has hidden, it seems to 

 relish that particular bite much more than 

 the ample supply which is in plain sight. 



We live in a neighborhood were there 

 are many trees and many houses, but so 

 far as I know we have all the birds with 

 us, no one else seeming to be interested in 

 these most wonderful and beautiful crea- 

 tures. For our trouble we have been 

 rewarded of late by the charming low 

 song of the Purple Finches. They began 

 singing late in January, which, from what 

 I have read in bird literature, is rather 

 early to hear music from the bird-choir in 

 New Jersey. It surely is a sight, these 

 wintry days, to see hundreds of birds so 

 close to the house. They know their 

 friends, and the only thing needed to get 

 their confidence is to feed them regularly 

 and move among them slowly and 

 deliberately, avoiding any sudden motion 

 or noise. We are only amateurs but are 

 learning something new every day. Quite 

 often our experience difl^ers widely from 

 what we read in the bird-books. — Bert M. 

 Moses, 422 Gregory Ave., West Orange^ 

 N. J. 



A Bird Exhibit 



The Bird Committee of the Civic Club 

 of Chambersburg, Pa., held an exhibit in 

 an empty storeroom, the week beginning 

 Feb. 12, 1917. 



One corner of the exhibit was given over 

 to the winter foods of the birds. A very 



BIRD EXHIBIT AT CHAMBERSBURG, PA., FEBRUARY 12,1917 



