My story ought to end here, but I must tell you about the tufted "tits" we saw next morning. The weather turned very cold that night, and in the morning a keen wind was blowing, so we didn't think many birds would be about. But hearing some chickadees in the yard, we ventured out, and went across the road, where we sat down in the shelter of a large corncrib.
From here we saw plenty of chickadees, titmice, nut-hatches, and other woodpeckers busily engaged in hunting their breakfasts. We had a fine opportunity of studying them with our glasses.
One bold "tit" stole a grain of corn from the crib and carried it off to the tree in front of us, where he took it in his claw, and proceeded to pick the choicest morsel out of it. Presently another tufted rogue flew up and there were some "passages of arms," and a flight into another tree, and in the midst of the fray, alas! the corn was dropped.
THE SCARLET PAINTED CUP.
PROF. WILLIAM KERR HIGLEY,
Secretary of The Chicago Academy of Sciences.
These children of the meadows, born
Of sunshine and of showers.
—Whittier.