Here he pauses, and
if no trick is discovered, and the meat be indeed meat, he seizes it
and makes off.
One midwinter I cleared away the snow under an apple-tree near the
house and scattered some corn there. I had not seen a blue-jay for
weeks, yet that very day one found my corn, and after that several came
daily and partook of it, holding the kernels under their feet upon the
limbs of the trees and pecking them vigorously.
Of course the woodpecker and his kind have sharp eyes; still I was
surprised to see how quickly Downy found out some bones that were
placed in a convenient place under the shed to be pounded up for the
hens. In going out to the barn I often disturbed him making a meal off
the bite of meat that still adhered to them.
"Look intently enough at anything," said a poet to me one day, "and you
will see something that would otherwise escape you." I thought of the
remark as I sat on a stump in an opening of the woods one spring day.
I saw a small hawk approaching; he flew to a tall tulip-tree and
alighted on a large limb near the top.
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