88 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



pleased to take. This is the only incident of my 

 life in which I have seen a bird of one species feed 

 the young of another with the exception of small 

 birds feeding cowbirds they had hatched in their 

 own nests. The robin knew that all of her brood 

 were intact in their nest in the cottonwood; she 

 could only have deviated from her course and fed 

 the young blackbird because he was a hungry 

 youngster vociferously begging for food. 



There are a number of wild cherry trees located 

 very near Limberlost Cabin, north. When the 

 fruit attains a juicy degree of ripeness and there 

 has been a high wind during the night there are 

 more cherries on the ground and these are more 

 easily obtained for bird food than the fruit on 

 the trees. Such a condition existed one morn- 

 ing in summer, as I was on my way downstairs 

 to breakfast. I paused at a window at a turn 

 in the stairs and looked into the west woods 

 attracted by sounds of warfare among the birds. 

 I was amazed to count seven pileated woodpeckers, 

 four old and three young not long from the nest, 

 four red-headed woodpeckers, and four robins on 

 the ground engaging in a battle royal over the 

 cherries. This was the first time I ever had seen 

 robins really fight with other birds. They seemed 

 to be as pugnacious as the red-heads, which are 

 stronger than they, and they seemed fearless in 

 attacking the pileated woodpeckers, which arc 

 both larger and stronger. The battle raged the 



