BIRD LIFE IN WASHINGTON 
19 
it. He lias a call which he gives from the 
tops of the firs which we may put into 
words, “Joey, come here.” “Joey, Joey 
come here!” he says. 
«/ 
In April Purple Finch is certain to be 
in the cherry trees when they are white 
with blossoms. What is he doing up 
there? He is picking oft* the blossoms, the 
little scamp ! He picks off the entire blos¬ 
som, extracts the honey and drops the 
rest. 
There are usually a number of little 
blossom pickers in the same tree. The 
ground soon appears as if covered with 
snow. It is often so thickly covered that 
our Nature Study Classes forget the 
birds and gather up handfulls shouting: 
“Play snow ball!” The chickens pick up 
the blossoms, but the birds renew the 
white carpet just as often until the trees 
are past bloom. It truly seems as though 
there could be no cherries upon that tree. 
One is very much tempted to chase the 
little red workers out of the tree and yet 
*/ 
they are really doing good. 
We watched the trees that appeared to 
be the birds favorites for years and we 
find them well filled with most excellent 
cherries. 
A tree produces a great many more 
blossoms than it should mature as cher¬ 
ries. This culling is of advantage; the 
fruit is larger and better. 
