•V 
Male Downy 
•iia 
f emale 
to the suet for her usual breakfast and while getting it was 
attacked by the male, who at first may have merely intended 
to drive her away. She may have angered him by some show 
of resistance. I do not think that either bird could have 
been there long before the crisis began for I had been in 
the room for fully half an hour before this and had looked 
out frequently to watch the Chickadees and Nuthatches as 
they flitted about the suet while Gilbert had been doing the 
same thing for some time before I came down, as he was pre¬ 
paring the table for our breakfast. 
I am inclined to think that the female was the bird 
which has nested several years past in the dead limb of the 
tall elm that shades the woodshed at the east end of the 
house and that the male who murdered her was not her mate. 
My reasons for so thinking are (l) because she has been here 
so constantly ever since the 12th and (2) because the male 
was not seen about the place previous to yesterday. Of course 
both surmises may be wrong. During previous years the 
breeding pair have always seemed on good terms with each 
other and have been accustomed to feed quite amicably at 
the suet, as far as I can remember (But not both on it at 
once). 
