296 



ing to do with the outcome, but one day, soon after their 

 set of eggs was completed, I saw a pair of red squirrels 

 playing about the tree and often going into the Flicker 

 nest. An investigation showed that the eggs were missing. 

 More careful were the Flickers that dwelt in a large wil- 

 low overhanging a swiftly flowing brook. Every chip was- 



Fig. 255. Young flickers do not like to pose before a camera. 



prudently carried away for a distance of a hundred yards 

 or more before it was dropped. 



Flickers are very different in their habits from other 

 woodpeckers. They get more of their food from the ground 

 than they do from trees; they are exceedingly fond of ants, 

 one bird often destroying a whole colony at one meal. They 

 also usually alight on branches crosswise, as a perching 

 bird does, instead of lengthwise like the other members of 

 the family. 



