ZERO BIRDS 25 
dawn and dark with the thermometer below zero. 
Certain gentlemen-adventurers of my acquaintance 
aided and abetted me in this plan. They all held 
high office in a military organization known for 
short as the Band. There was First Lieutenant 
Trottie, Second Lieutenant Honey, Sergeant Henny- 
Penny, and Corporal Alice-Palace, while I had been 
honored with a captain’s commission in this regi- 
ment. To be sure, there was something of a dearth 
of privates; but with such a gallant array of officers 
their absence was not felt. At any hour of day or 
night, to the last man, every member of the Band 
was ready for the most desperate adventures by field 
and flood. 
As we left the house the thermometer stood at 
four below, while the sky was of a frozen blue, 
without a cloud, and had a hard glitter as if streaked 
with frost. In a low tree by the roadside, we heard 
the metallic note of a downy woodpecker scurrying 
up the trunk and backing stiffly down. Farther on 
sounded a loud cawing, and we saw four ruffianly 
crows assaulting a respectable female broad-winged 
hawk. One after the other they would flap over her 
as closely as possible, aiming vicious pecks as they 
passed. The broad-winged beat the air frantically 
with her short, wide, fringed wings, and seemed to 
make no effort to defend herself against her black, 
jeering pursuers. Once she alighted on an exposed 
limb. Instantly the crows settled near her and 
used language which no respectable female hawk 
could listen to for a moment. She spread her wings 
