50 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



finches had arrived. Not one of them offered 

 a song while we remained near. This was a pity, 

 for though it is seldom heard, this finch has a 

 tiny, rippling song well known to the woods of 

 the North. 



Quite well represented in this rendezvous 

 were the woodpeckers. Some flickers were 

 shouting almost continually, and two were flirt- 

 ing and bobbing noisily around a dead poplar 

 bole. At no time very dignified, this fellow 

 usually makes a sad fool of himself when he goes 

 courting. A downy's sharp, nickering call came 

 from somewhere near; and a yellow-bellied sap- 

 sucker — silent and morose as usual — ^was ob- 

 served. He had his eye open for a sleek-skinned, 

 juicy young tree and probably had already 

 tapped several in the vicinity. In the Manitoba 

 woods this fellow usually preys on the willow, 

 birch, and poplar, but best of all he dearly loves 

 a basswood, and if there is one in the vicinity he 

 will find it. It is almost impossible to find one 

 of these trees free from the numerous scars — 

 rectangular pits laid regularly in rings and rows 

 — made by the beak of this woodpecker. Even 

 in the little parks in the heart of the city, the 

 basswoods meet the same treatment as elsewhere 



