, and she made no way; then she
carried it in her beak and tried fitting it into various places. I hope
she did not swear at it, but she seemed to think the thing was
possessed, for it was not like the ordinary nuts: she could manage them;
they would go into holes in the bark; this wouldn't fit anywhere, and
yet she could not give it up. At last, by a bright inspiration, she got
it fixed into a space between the tree-stem and the side of the cage.
Now she was in high glee, and all the household might have heard the
rapping that went on while she scooped out the inside and chipped off
pieces to be hidden carefully away in some secret place.

Zoee had a cosy nook under a sloping piece of bark, to which she would
retire at times, and sitting down on the bottom of her cage in the
shadow, looked like a little grey mouse. When appetite brought her out
again, she would go to her tree-larder and pick out the choice hidden
morsels, as if they were the insects which would have been her food if
her lot had been cast amongst tree-branches instead of in a cage.

When winter began, Zoee was placed in the conservatory, where a tame
robin often came for a few hours to enjoy his daily crumbs and the
pleasant warmth of the air. Bobby was greatly puzzled at the nuthatch,
watched her hammerings from the top of the cage, walked round it,
surveying the provisions inside, and at last he made up his mind to get
in somehow and partake of the longed-for dainties. I could see quite
plainly the attraction, the hesitation, the pros and cons, and then,
finally, the resolve, and felt very curious as to how the birdish mind
would carry out its intention. There was only one place, where the bars
were rather widely apart, so that the nuthatch could have got out if she
had possessed half the wits of the robin. After a quiet survey and a few
flights backwards and forwards, Bobby saw this place, and made towards
it, sat and considered for a few seconds, and finally went in. The
nuthatch was sitting quietly under her piece of bark, and did not see
him; so he picked up the desired morsels, and, after a few minutes, went
out where it came in. These visits he repeated frequently through the
day, but once I was amused to see that he forgot "the way out," and put
himself in a great fuss, realized that a cage was a prison, and flew up
and down in a fright, until by chance he saw the opening, and glided
out. At last Zoee caught him in the act of purloining her goo