BIRDb -NESIS. 115 



call or two, when its mate soon appears, and, alight- 

 ing near it on the branch, the pa:r chatter and caress 

 A moment, then the fresh one enters the cavity and 

 the other flies away. 



A few days since I climbed up to the nest of the 

 downy woodpecker, in the decayed top of a sngar- 

 maple. For better protection against driving rains 

 the hole, which was rather more than an inch in di- 

 ameter, was made immediately beneath a branch which 

 stretched out almost horizontally from the main stem. 

 It appeared merely a deeper shadow upon the dark 

 and mottled surface of the bark with which the 

 branches were covered, and could not be detected by 

 the eye until one was within a few feet of it. The 

 young chirped vociferously as I approached the nest, 

 thinking it was the old one with food ; but the clamor 

 suddenly ceased as I put my hand on that part of the 

 trunk in which they were concealed, the unusual jar- 

 ring and rustling alarming them into silence. Th^ 

 cavity, which was about fifteen inches deep, was gourd- 

 sbaped, and was wrought out with great skill and 

 regularity. The walls were quite smooth and clean 

 and new. 



I shall never forget the circumstance of observing 

 a pair of yellow-bellied woodpeckers — the most rare 

 and secluded, and, next to the red-headed, the most 

 beautiful species found in our woods, — breeding in 

 an old, truncated beech in the Beaverkill Mountains, 

 an offshoot of the Catskills. We had been traveh'ng 

 ihiee of us, all day in search of a trout lake, whict 



