Edgerton — Birds About a Country Home 273 



twos and threes and singly. If other birds are there they are 

 soon driven away and the Downies occupy it by right of con- 

 quest. 



On occasions a Hairy Woodpecker comes also, but it is 

 sometimes absent for weeks and never comes regularly. 



Last winter a female Red-bellied Woodpecker came fre- 

 quently and this winter I see both birds. They are very noisy 

 and more timid than the Downy Woodpecker which seems 

 afraid of nothing. 



At the lunch counter all birds but the Cardinal have puzzled 

 over what to do with the large grains of corn. Cardinals, 

 by virtue of thei-r large bills, take the grains whole. They 

 are the only winter birds that come to the yard quite alone, 

 and having no other bird to warn of the cat's approach, they 

 are nervous and timid. I have recently noticed that a male 

 Cardinal roosts at night in an old shack hardly larger than 

 a dog kennel which the children use in summer for a play- 

 house. He comes at sunset for corn, signifies his displeas- 

 ure, if the counter is bare, by a few sharp chirps and then 

 flies to the open window of the playhouse. I think it likely 

 that it is the same bird that spent the summer nights in a 

 f-ruit tree near the house. W'e always knew when he came 

 by the loud chirps he gave as he flew into the thick leaves. 



When the Tufted Titmice come to the counter they bring 

 all their relatives and the Chickadees. They are often to 

 be seen on the loosely shingled roof of the sugar-house work- 

 ing around the shingles. It leads me to suppose they have 

 hidden things in the roof. Their solution of ths corn prob- 

 lem is to hold the grain to the limb with one foot while it is 

 pounded to pieces. They call, " Peter-Peter " if the day is 

 fair and dine together in brotherly love. 



Not so the Blue Jays, however. We all know they have 

 their little prejudices. Among themselves they live in har- 

 mony while it is winter. As the grain of corn is too large 

 to swallow whole it is taken in the bill by one end, the free 

 end is then pounded off and wasted. The Jays sometimes 

 carry away co-rn but I have never seen where it was hidden. 



