CROSS-CUT VIEWS OF WINTER. 24 1 



ing for winged insects. Sometimes it perches hori- 

 zontally on a bough, but this evidently is not an 

 easy position, for it quickly resumes the perpen- 

 dicular, for which its organization is especially 

 adapted. It hammers on a tree, at first striking 

 a few rapid, steady blows ; then raises its head 

 higher or farther away from the trunk, to deal 

 heavier strokes, as if impatient with the persistent 

 bark. 



The yellow hammer, from his four-story window, 

 cries " Peop ! '* The flight seems not to have the 

 free and easy lope of the summer time. The brown 

 creepers are blowing their tiny trumpets. 



What an odd bit of feathers is this little Certhia 

 familiaris as he moves around the hickory trunk, 

 as if climbing a spiral stairway. It is the only 

 species in the genus that visits our New England 

 woods. Although it has all the clinging and climb- 

 ing facilities, sharp claws nearly as long as the 

 toes, and rigid shafts for tail feathers, it never 

 turns round or drops down on the trunk. The bill 

 is long, slim, and decurved; not fitted to chisel the 

 wood, but employing it rather as a pair of tweezers, 

 to extract the grub or eggs hid down in the crev- 

 ices and behind the loose patches of bark. It is 

 difficult to keep track of him, he is such an agile 



