226 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



"ANYBODY HERE." 



"DID SOME ONE CALL. 



"OH THERE YOU ARE." 



The Flicker at Home. 



BY CLARENCE BUXDY, T.\C()^L\, OHIO. , 



It was the middle of April. Birds 

 were everywhere. The flickers were 

 beginning to remodel their summer 

 home — located in a dead cherry tree by 

 the yard fence. 



For several days they worked at the 

 digging and the cleaning until the hol<" 

 was five inches in diameter and 



After a week or so all became quiet. 

 Had the birds gone to find a more suit- 

 able abode? Investigation proved that 

 they were at home, for a tap on the 

 tree brought the female bird to the 

 front door. About the middle of ^lay, 

 things began to happen around the old 

 cherry. The days of patient brooding 

 were over, and the duties of hunting 

 for food and training the young were 

 added to the ordinar^' routine. One 



"YES, rVE RETURNED. 



•DO YOU LO\E ME YET 



"YUM, YUM, YUM.' 



eighteen inches deep, a more spacious 

 apartment than the former occupants, 

 also flickers, had owned during the pre- 

 vious year. 



Occasionally they took resting spells, 

 on a nearby trellis, there going through 

 the craziest performances, bowing, 

 scraping, spreading wings and tail, and 

 sounding their rolling wheet-ur, wheet- 

 ur, wheet-ur. It was curious love-mak- 

 ing when viewed from a human stand- 

 point. 



morning when the male bird flew to 

 the hole he was met by one of his 

 greedy offspring whose energy had 

 brought him to the edge of a new 

 world. Before giving up the morsel of 

 food, the male flicker often sat prop- 

 ped on his tail at one side of the hole 

 just out of reach presumably giving a 

 lesson in patience, though I should say 

 that the vocal apparatus was most 

 benefitted. 



And how they grew. So fast that the 



