THE WREN. 29 
part of my stay, if I may omit the ever present Chickadee, one or 
more of which was always around the house picking at a doughnut 
or muffin strung on a bush for their special delectation. ‘The 
- number of their calls, especially as the month advanced, was really 
"quite surprising and the well-known “‘Phoebe’’-note became 
more and more prevalent. Indeed one lady remarked, as I had 
expected, that having heard the ‘‘Pewee” that very morning, she 
thought spring was on the way. 
The first, and in fact only Woodpecker seen during my stay was 
the Hairy, and as I learn from other observers he is the sole repre- 
sentative of his family there in winter. The first pair which I saw 
were busily engaged in fighting, but later I saw three together 
amicably seeking their insect prey from the trunks of pines and 
hardwoods. A crimson splash on the nape of one of these showed 
him to be a male while one of the others at least was a female. 
The lucky day of my first Hairy Woodpecker observation also 
brought forth a Ruffed Grouse which I saw picking its way gingerly 
through a birch thicket along the crust, which covered the snow 
during almost the entire month. 
My first week had passed, but as yet I had no indication of that 
rarer and more uncertain winter visitor the Pine Grosbeak. One 
bright, sunny morning, however, just before rising, I was startled 
to hear their cheery, ringing notes. Running to the window, | 
was just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of two plump individuals 
perched upon the topmost branches of a sugar maple just outside. 
They were off in the twinkling of an eye but the instant’s glance 
at their subdued brown plumage showed them to be females or 
immature birds. Once afterward I heard their gladdening call, 
but I observed no others. 
The sugar maples seemed to be especially attractive to the birds, 
for besides my longed-for Grosbeaks and countless Chickadees, 
they furnished my first Red-breasted Nuthatch actually observed 
though I had previously heard their high nasal call in the woods. 
During early February the weather was uniformly cold, but the 
thermometer scarcely ever went below zero. It was sufficiently 
cold, however, to keep the Blue Jays from proudly displaying them- 
selves in all their beauty and making the woods resound with their 
discordant call. But they occasionally made sallies for the Chick- 
