46 IN BIRD LAND. 



pursue their untiring quest for food, he doubtless 

 would have written in his Proverbs : " Go to the 

 titmouse, thou sluggard ; consider his ways, and be 

 wise." 



Associated with the titmice, kinglets, and nut- 

 hatches were the downy woodpeckers, which belong 

 to the artisan family of the bird community, being 

 hammerers, drillers, and chisellers all combined. 

 They pursue their chosen calling most sedulously. 

 " What 's the use of having a vocation if you don't 

 follow it?" you may almost hear them say as they 

 cant their heads to one side and peep under the 

 bark for a tidbit, or hammer vigorously at a crevice 

 in which a worm is embedded. The hairy wood- 

 peckers, which are somewhat larger, are more erratic 

 in their movements, none having been seen from 

 the autumn until the latter part of January. At 

 this date I heard their loud, nervous Chi-i-i-r-r, as 

 they dashed from tree to tree apparently in great 

 excitement. 



I cannot forbear contrasting this winter with the 

 previous one. In the winter of 1 889-1 890 the song- 

 sparrows never left us at all, but sang on almost 

 every pleasant day when I went to the woods or 

 marsh ; but this winter, which was somewhat colder, 

 they went to other climes, and left the fringes of the 

 pools and the thickets in the swamp tenantless, 

 songless, and desolate. In 1 889-1 890 the cardinal 

 grossbeaks whistled every month, making the woods 

 ring even in January ; this winter not a single note 

 was heard from their resonant throats. I had just 



