. Bird lore. Birds; Birds; Ornithology. Notes from Field and Study 335 just about as tame, while the White- breasted are a trifle more shy. The male Nuthatches appear to domineer over the females, not permitting them to visit the trays until the males have first taken a seed or nut and flown away with it. The male Downy will not allow his spouse to feed at the suet until his own appetite has been appeased. She sits near and keeps- up her peculiar cry in the meantime. And 3^et I have seen a Downy, a Nuthatch, and a Chickadee all eating peacefully at the same piece of suet at one time. Pos- sibl
. Bird lore. Birds; Birds; Ornithology. Notes from Field and Study 335 just about as tame, while the White- breasted are a trifle more shy. The male Nuthatches appear to domineer over the females, not permitting them to visit the trays until the males have first taken a seed or nut and flown away with it. The male Downy will not allow his spouse to feed at the suet until his own appetite has been appeased. She sits near and keeps- up her peculiar cry in the meantime. And 3^et I have seen a Downy, a Nuthatch, and a Chickadee all eating peacefully at the same piece of suet at one time. Pos- sibly they were all males and were carry- ing out 'a gentlemen's agreement.' The Chickadees and Nuthatches, after gorging themselves to satiety, carry away and hide sunflower seeds and bits of nuts, storing them in cracks of fences and in crevices in the bark of trees. Sometimes one bird will watch another do this, and then, when the coast is clear, proceed to appropriate for itself the hidden tit-bit. Blue Jays and squirrels do the same, and I have often observed them pilfering from each other. The Nuthatches some- times hide morsels in the cracks of the very food-trays from which they get their regular meals, and when one discovers what another has hidden, it seems to relish that particular bite much more than the ample supply which is in plain sight. We live in a neighborhood were there are many trees and many houses, but so far as I know we have all the birds with us, no one else seeming to be interested in these most wonderful and beautiful crea- tures. For our trouble we have been rewarded of late by the charming low song of the Purple Finches. They began singing late in January, which, from what I have read in bird literature, is rather early to hear music from the bird-choir in New Jersey. It surely is a sight, these wintry days, to see hundreds of birds so close to the house. They know their friends, and the only thing needed to get their confidence is to feed them regular
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