1906] Extracts from Diary of the Late Robt. Elliott 123 



si me little songster suddenly ceased to sing. Saw flicker in 

 maple at edge of orchard ; also another on ant hill eating a me- 

 dium-sized ant with brownish head and thorax, and black abdo- 

 men. Think of the storm last night and the hot sun today. 

 When the ant hill is bare of snow the inmates sally out, the hungry 

 flicker comes, and the great question is who is to live. How 

 eagerly the ants were working to clear away debris ! How pr 

 ty the flicker's plumage in the light of the western sun ! 



April 7. Watched pileated woodpecker digging its nest in a 

 high stub at 10 A.M. Noticed the bird at the same hole on 

 March 17; nest was well dug out at that time. Now, last year, 

 1 saw a hole in the winter which was afterwards used by the 

 pileated for an nest. Does this bird use the winter rocsting 

 place as a nest for the ensuing season, and are their nests occu- 

 pied for more than one season? The yellow-shafted flicker does 

 this. 



April 8. Visited Cough's in the evening. Many signs ot 

 spring, the more notable being blossoms of Erigenia bu1bosa> 

 Claytonia and Hepatica. What delicate odors and most ex- 

 quisite tints these early nurslings of April show ! Near the spot 

 where the Harbinger of Spring starred the gray knolls, a male 

 chewink cheerfully sang ; another answered him from a neigh- 

 boring copse. Heard a W. R. shrike singing a feeble song on 

 top of a high elm. 



April 9. Captured a specimen of the butterfly Grapta 

 j-album. Saw three individuals at different places and followed 

 one a long distance but owing to its very rapid flight it escaped. 

 How perfectly the under side of its wing assimilates with the 

 grey of decayed leaves and wood. When the wings are closed 

 it is very difficult to make it out among dead leaves, and no 

 doubt by this means it often escapes the notice of sharper eyes 

 than mine, viz: those of the keen and hungry birds. 



April 10. I walked one and half miles along the river from 



Model to Plover Mills. It was very pleasant, the bright sun was 



\ setting at the head of a long ravine, the mo; n overhead was slow- 



^' Iv gathering light, and on the opposite side of the singing river, 



half way up a wooded slope, a bright fire was burning in a sugar 



