a
tree trunk, and left it there. It had long light hair which stood out
around the head, and it did look rather uncanny, but it was amusing to
see the consternation it caused. Blue jays came to trees near by, and
talked in low tones to each other; then one after another swooped down
toward it; then they all squawked at it, and finding this of no avail,
they left in a body.

The robins approached cautiously, two of them, calling constantly, "he!
he! he!" One was determined not to be afraid, and came nearer and
nearer, till within about a foot of the strange object and behind it,
when suddenly he started as though shot, jumped back, and both flew in a
panic.

Soon after this a red-headed woodpecker alighted on the trunk of the
elm, preparatory to helping himself to a grain of corn. The moment his
eyes fell upon madam of the fluffy hair, he burst out with a loud, rapid
woodpecker "chitter," gradually growing higher in key and louder in
tone. The blue jay flew down from the nest across the yard, and another
came from behind the house; both perched near and stared at him, and
then began to talk in low tones. A robin came hastily over and gazed at
the usually silent red-head, and apparently it was to all as strange a
performance as it was to me, or possibly they recognized that it was a
cry of warning against danger.

After he had us all aroused, the bird suddenly fell to silence, and
resumed his ordinary manner, but he did not go after corn. I suppose the
harangue was addressed to the doll.

That was the last scene in the first act of the corn feast, for the
blackbirds had become so numerous and so noisy that they made morning
hideous to the whole household, and I stopped the supplies for several
days, till these birds ceased to expect anything, and so came no more,
and then I spread a fresh breakfast-table for more interesting guests,
whose manners and customs I studied for weeks.

I was invariably startled wide awake on these mornings by a bird note,
and sprang up, to see at one glance that

"Day had awakened all things that be,
The lark and the thrush, and the swallow free,"

and that my party was already assembled; one or two cardinals--or
redbirds, as they are often called--on the grass, with the usual
attendance of English sparrows, and the red-headed woodpecker in the
elm, surveying the lawn, and considering which of the trespassers he
should fall upon. It was the work of one minute to get into my wraps and