KNIGHTS OF THE CHISEL 



tion. A fine male of his persuasion was visiting me 

 daily, but he was so shy and nervous. Before coming 

 to eat he would jerk and dodge, back and forth, till it 

 seemed that he would never come to eat after all. 

 However, in time he would make up his mind, and dart 

 down to the piazza to strike the suet telling knockout 

 blows ; with an excited chirp now and then, he would 

 quickly chisel off all he wanted and dart away. 



I wasted so much time trying to pull the thread on 

 him and get even a single picture for this book, that 

 Ned thought that he would try to beat me. So he 

 propped up a stick out in the snow with a piece of suet 

 on top, focused the camera on it, and sat for hours at a 

 window, reading and watching, ready to pull the thread. 

 Now and then the bird appeared, but went off, afraid of 

 the camera. At last, just for an instant, he alighted 

 on the stick, under the meat, and Ned "got" him, as 

 nice as you please. I fear that it will be a long time 

 before Ned stops crowing about how he beat me photo- 

 graphing Hairy Woodpeckers. 



100 



