WOODPECKERS AND THEIR WAYS. 



343 



fact, at the approach of any one or anything, the youngsters taking it 

 for granted that any sound that reaches them in their seclusion must 

 necessarily mean food, and each endeavors to drown the clamor of 

 ^11 the others. 



After a while the parents try to entice them out into the day- 

 light by clinging to the branch and holding some delicate morsel 

 before the entrance, whereupon the most enterprising, or possibly 

 the hungriest, youngster scrambles up the wall of the nursery and, 

 thrusting out his head, seizes the food and falls back aghast at his own 

 boldness. They are apt to be slow about leaving the nest, and are 

 generally fully fledged before they finally gather courage to crawl 

 forth and cling to the branches, shrieking hysterically for their 

 parents to come to their rescue. After a day or two of such behavior 

 they grow braver, and learn to accompany their parents about the 

 orchard, and at last away to the pastures, seldom showing themselves 

 about the house after they have fairly learned to fly. Being a heavy- 

 bodied bird, the flicker is only too often regarded as a game bird, 

 thongli his flesh is, to say the least, tough, and here is where his 

 intelligence becomes most apparent, for it certainly looks as though 

 these birds learned to know at sight those persons who are in the 

 way of shooting them, for they are almost invariably regarded by 

 these gunners as about the most difficult birds to approach in exist- 

 ence, though others do not 

 regard them in that light, 

 and for my own part I cer- 

 tainly have hundreds of op- 

 portunities for shooting 

 them every season if I 

 were so inclined. 



The downy woodpeck- 

 €r perhaps comes next to 

 the flicker in abundance, 

 for, although never to be 

 seen in any great numbers, 

 one or two of them may 

 usually be found wher- 

 ever there are decaying 



trees for them to work up- yellow-bellied Woodpecker. 



on. Nor do they depend 



entirely upon dying trees for their nesting grounds, as one may fre- 

 quently be seen working his way up the stem of a young fruit tree or 

 sapling whose smooth bark would hardly be supposed capable of fur- 

 nishing concealment for the smallest insect. Next to the apple tree, 

 the elm is perhaps his favorite, the rough bark of large ones allowing 



