During the next ten minutes she did not once shift 
her perch but the inclination of her body changed from time 
to time, varying from horizontal or crouching to nearly 
erect, and her head was rarely still for more than an instant. 
Indeed, she kept it in rapid and almost constant motion 
as she darted it out on every side and sometimes upward, 
picking off and swallowing the poplar buds much as a hungry 
domestic fowl eats corn. At least, this is what I knew she 
must be doing although I could not see the buds at that 
distance, of course. My view of the bird (a small female) 
was obscured only (and but slightly) by the long pendant 
catkins with which the tree was thickly hung but as I had 
her silhouette against the bright light in the west I could 
trace her outlines and her movements accurately enough. 
It was growing dark (&,t 6,30 ) when she left her perch (a 
slender branch 2o|fpet above the vround near' the top of the 
tree) and whizzed (no sound of wings, however) across the 
road in the red pine grove where I heard her strike either 
a branch or the ground with a loud swot. (This record 
should be compared'with that made here in March several 
years ago of 8 or 9 Partridges budding in apple trees). 
