A RED-HEADED POACHER. 213 



it, even after it was anchored in the crack. 

 Then, observing that, although a long way off, 

 I was interested in his doings, he slipped around 

 behind the trunk, and peered at me first from 

 one side, then in an instant from the other. 



The next performance with which this bird 

 entertained me was poaching upon his cousin's 

 preserves. Sitting one evening on the veranda, 

 looking over the meadow, I heard his low 

 "kr-r-r," and saw him alight upon the sapsuck- 

 er's elm. Whether he stumbled upon the feast 

 or went with malice aforethought, he was not 

 slow to appreciate the charms of his position. It 

 may have been the nectar from the tree, or the 

 minute victims of its attractions, I could not tell 

 which, but something pleased him, for he de- 

 voted himself to the task of exploring the tiny 

 cups his industrious relative had carved, driv- 

 ing away one of the younger members of the 

 family already in possession. The young bird 

 could not refuse to go before the big beak and 

 determined manner of the stranger, but he did 

 refuse to stay away; and every time he was 

 ousted he returned to the tree, though he settled 

 on a different place. Before the red -head had 

 shown any signs of exhausting his find, the sap- 

 sucker himself appeared, and at once fell upon 

 his bigger cousin with savage cries. Disturbed 

 so rudely from his pleasing occupation, the in- 



