BALD PEAKS AND GREEN VALES 77 



of a woodpecker, and, to my intense joy, a moment later 

 a Williamson's sapsucker swung to a pine bole a little 

 below me and began pecking leisurely and with assumed 

 nonchalance for grubs in the fissures of the bark. From 

 mv hiding-place behind some bushes I kept my eye on 

 the handsome creature. An artist might well covet the 

 privilege of painting this elegant bird as he scales the 

 wall of a pine tree. Presently he glided to a snag not 

 more than a rod from the chickadee's domicile, and then 

 I noticed that the dead bole was perforated by a number 

 of woodpecker holes, into one of which the sapsucker 

 presently slipped with the tidbit he held in his bill. 

 The doorway was almost too small for him, obliging him 

 to turn slightly sidewise and make some effort to effect 

 an entrance. Fortune had treated me as one of her 

 favorites : I had discovered the nest of Williamson's 

 sapsucker. 



But still another surprise was in store. A low, dubi- 

 ous chirping was heard, and then the female ambled 

 leisurely to the snag and hitched up to the orifice. She 

 made several efforts to enter, but could not while her 

 spouse was within. Presently he wormed himself out, 

 whereupon she went in, and remained for some time. 

 At length I crept to the snag and beat against it with 

 my cane. She was loath to leave the nest, but after a 

 little while decided that discretion was the better part of 

 valor. ^\Tien she came out, my presence so near her 



