WINTER PENSIONERS 91 



rate, they preferred to eat from the same bit of 

 fat, one on each side, in great contrast with all 

 the rest of our company. Frequently, too, a 

 brown creeper would be seen hitching up the 

 trunk or over the larger limbs. He likes plea- 

 sant society, though he has Kttle to say, and 

 perhaps found scftips of suet in the crevices of 

 the bark, where the chickadees, who are given 

 to this kind of providence, may have packed it 

 in store: Somewhat less frequently a goldcrest 

 would come with the others, fluttering amid the 

 branches like a sprite. One bird draws another, 

 especially in hard times. And so it happened 

 that our tree, or rather trees, — an elm and a 

 maple, — were something like an aviary the 

 whole winter through. It was worth more than 

 aU the trouble which the experiment cost us to 

 lie in bed before sunrise, with the mercury below 

 zero, and hear a chickadee just outside singing 

 as sweetly as any thrush could sing in June. If 

 he had been trying to thank us, he could not 

 have done it more gracefully. 



The worse the weather, the better we enjoyed 

 the birds' society; and the better, in general, 

 they seemed to appreciate our efBorts on their 

 behalf. It was noticeable, however, that chicka- 

 dees were with us comparatively little during 

 ' high, cold winds. On the 18th of February, for 



