GENERAL JIM 153 
learning from them many ways of getting it. 
They taught him, for instance, to fly low over a 
field where the snow was light, looking for signs 
of oat stalks, and when they were seen, to scratch 
close to them for dropped grain. They taught 
him the food value of many seeds, and how to 
peck around the cracks and bark scales of old 
trees (especially apple trees) and rotten stumps 
for grubs and larve. Jim, whose food had al- 
ways come easy, was green at first, but he was a 
ready pupil, and could soon shift with the best, 
and seldom went hungry. 
At last, however, there came a great storm, 
with a terrible wind and bitter cold. Poor Jim 
almost froze to death, huddled in the’ deepest, 
most protected part of his pine, because he could 
not venture out for food in such a blizzard, nor 
find any if he did venture out, and without a lot 
of food a bird, which is an intensely hot-blooded 
creature, soon perishes. His little engine has to 
be stoked regularly and energetically to keep up 
steam. It was not till late the following day that 
Jim could get out any distance in his search, and 
by then his vitality was so low that he could just 
