112 Tlic Yellow-hammer, or Yellow-head. 



alighting abruptly, he has a curious way of jerking out his tail 

 feathers like a little fan. All at once a whole flock of them 

 will descend from a considerable h-eight and settle on the twigs 

 of a tree, clothing it as with living leaves. Whatever number 

 the flock may consist of, there is no impatient hurry or jostling 

 among them to get the best perch, every individual settling as 

 if on its own appointed place. As I have already observed, 

 nothing is more charming at this season than these congregated 

 companies of small birds. All the cares of life are now over-, 

 their young broods are around them, and now, with nothing to 

 do but to enjoy themselves in the freedom of nature, where^ 

 on every hand, on every bush and tree, and in every outlying 

 field — though the crops are now carried, all except, perhaps, 

 here and there a solitary field in which the bean-shocks stand 

 up black in the golden autumnal sunshine ; but here, and there, 

 and everywhere, a full table is spread, and they are welcome to 

 enjoy. 



In spring and summer, the yellow-hammer sings a peculiar 

 but mournful sort of little ditty, composed of a few short, 

 sonorous notes, concluding with one long drawn out. In the 

 midland counties, where stocking-weaving is the business' of 

 the people, the note of the bird is said to resemble the working 

 of the machine — ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-e-e-chay — the prolonged latter 

 syllable being what the stockinger calls, in the machine move- 

 ment, " pressing over the arch." In other parts of the country 

 this bird's song is interpreted as "A little bit of bread, and^ 

 no-cheese !" which may just as well be " A little bird am I, and 

 —no thief!" 



The food of this bird consists of the seeds of all kinds of 



