the Titmouse and the Woodpecker, 77 



state, the titmouse or the woodpecker will have found an 

 entrance, and a place of safety for their incubation. They 

 quickly perforate the distempered bark ; and then, the tainted 

 wood beneath it yields to their pointed bills, with which they 

 soon effect a spacious cavity. 



Here then we have the whole mystery unfolded. These 

 birds, which never perforate the live wood, find in this diseased 

 part of the tree, or of the branch, a place suitable to then- 

 wants. They make a circular hole, large enough to admit 

 their bodies ; and then they form a cavity within, sufficiently 

 spacious to contain their young. Thus does Nature kindly 

 smooth the way, in order that all her creatures may prosper 

 and be happy. Whenever I see these sylvan carpenters thus 

 employed, I say to them, " Work on, ye pretty birds ; you 

 do no harm in excavating there : I am your friend, and I will 

 tell the owner of the tree that you are not to blame." But 

 his woodman deserves a severe reprimand. He ought to have 

 cut down the tree, in the autumn after the appearance of the 

 fungus. 



On the island where this house stands, two stately syca- 

 mores have afforded ample proof of what I have advanced. 



One of these, some forty years ago, began to put on a sickly 

 appearance ; and I heard my father say that he expected to 

 see it blown down in a heavy gale of wind. In the summer 

 of ] 800, I climbed up to the place where the brown owl for- 

 merly used to breed. The hole was full of water, in a branch 

 leading from the bole, at about 20 ft. from the ground. Pre- 

 suming from appearances that the damage was extensive, I 

 took a wimble, and bored into the tree, at the height of 5 ft. ; 

 then at 3 ft. ; and lastly, I got a chisel, and cut into it at 3 in. 

 from the walk. Twenty-four gallons of water, having the ap- 

 pearance of strong coffee, were procured from these apertures 

 in the course of the day. After this, I put a cap of lead over 

 the hole on the high branch above, leaving an entrance for 

 the owl, should she ever come again; and I drove two long 

 pieces of iron into the bole below the aperture, sufficiently 

 low to form a floor for the owl's apartment, which I made 

 with scraps of stone covered with sawdust. In the summer 

 of the present year, 1835, 35 years from the first operation, 

 I enlarged the lowest hole next the walk 4 in. ; and, by the 

 help of a little iron shovel, I took from the interior of the 

 tree four large wheelbarrows full of decomposed wood, not 

 unlike coffee-grounds in appearance. With this substance, 

 there came out some of the small scraps of stone, which I 

 had used in making the floor for the owl's residence : proof 

 incontestable, that the rain water had gradually destroyed the 



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