32 JN BIRD LAND. 



cold winter day ; I think I 'd better get it out now." 

 When he had secured it, he put it into another 

 crevice, which also proved too deep ; and so his 

 dainty had to be recovered once more. The third 

 attempt, however, proved a charm, for that time he 

 found a little pocket just to his liking. To make 

 very sure he did not eat the seed, I did not take my 

 eye from him for a single moment. The fact is, 

 during the entire time spent in watching the birds, I 

 did not see them eat a single seed. The titmice flew 

 farther into the woods with their winter " goodies," 

 where the foliage was so dense, while the birds were 

 so quick in movement, that it was impossible to see 

 just where they hid their store ; but they returned 

 too soon for a new supply to allow time for eating 

 the seeds. 



One autumn I spent a week in a part of Ken- 

 tucky where beechnuts were very plentiful, and saw 

 the hairy and red-headed woodpeckers putting 

 away their hoard of " mast " for the winter, indus- 

 trious husbandmen that they were. A farmer said 

 that he had often seen the woodpeckers carrying 

 these nuts to a hole in a tree and dropping them 

 into it. He once found such a winter store that 

 must have contained fully a quart of beechnuts. In 

 my own neighborhood the hairy woodpecker often 

 hides tidbits in gullies of the bark, after the man- 

 ner of the nuthatch. The crested tit also stows 

 corn and various kinds of seeds in some safe niche 

 for a time of exigency. Several times in the winter, 

 when the ground was covered with snow, I have 



