254 BIRDS OF FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



would choose the Hairy Woodpecker when car- 

 ing for the brood rather than the honey bee. 



In my excursions about the wood I have been 

 surprised at the number of Woodpecker families 

 discovered, their holes being usually located by 

 the hungry cries of the young. Homes of 

 Flickers, Downies, Hairies, American Three- 

 toed Woodpeckers and Sapsuckers have been 

 found, all with the entrance facing the east. 

 May not this location of the front door be due 

 to a desire to catch the first ray of light as morn- 

 ing breaks in the forest 1 



Among the dead trunks surrounding an iso- 

 lated pond, I heard the loud blows and startling 

 cries of the "Cock of the Woods"; but as the 

 day was far advanced and the trail home a long 

 one it was not deemed wise to hunt his nest. 

 The sight of this bird is always for me an event 

 in any bird-hunting day. Although once com- 

 mon, it is now to be considered as rare, except 

 in the deepest forest. 



Many other birds besides the Woodpeckers 

 find conditions in the old stub lot greatly to their 

 liking, the Flycatchers in particular being much 

 in evidence. The shrill interrogatory of the 

 Crested is often heard. For an hour after day- 

 break each morning his persistent cry is very 

 prominent in the bird chorus. This habit has 

 occasioned dark threats to be made against this 

 unseemly disturber, as he is regarded by the 

 sleepy folk, threats even involving his destruc- 

 tion unless he reforms forthwith. From his 

 lookout on the top of some prominent stub the 

 Olive-sided Flycatcher calmly surveys the scene 



