Cambridge, Mass.
1899.
January.
(No. 8).
English Sparrow, perched on the top of the suet in full view
of, and scarce six inches from, one another, continue eating
for several minutes, neither bird paying the slightest appar-
ent attention to his vis-a-vis. On another occasion a Chick-
adee and a Downy Woodpecker were observed eating on opposite
sides of the suet at the same time. The Chickadees visited
the suet at all hours of the day but oftenest during the fore-
noon. I heard them give the phoebe[delete]e[/delete] call a few times but not
with much spirit.
  The Creepers, with the timidity characteristic of their
kind, never ventured to approach the suet when any of the
other birds were engaged at it. It was amusing to watch one
of them slowly climbing the opposite side of the elm pretend-
ing to regard the bark closely but at every convenient oppor-
tunity peeping around to see if the Chickadee or
Sparrow had departed, and, if he had not, dropping to the
foot of the tree and ascending again, often repeating this
many times in succession. When the coast was finally clear 
the Creeper would alight on the top of the suet and eat greed-
ily for several minutes never pecking at it vigorously as did
the Chickadees and Woodpeckers but laboriously prying or tear-
ing out shreds or fragments, often of such large size that he
had difficulty in swallowing them.
  Twice during the month I saw a Creeper descend to the