THE DOWNY WOODPECKER. 23 



about the yard as before the first shot. I felt assured the 

 bird's time of departure was not yet come, and so conchided 

 to do without it. But as I afterward became more success- 

 ful with a gun, and consequently got Downy in my hand 

 for a careful examination (and to an ornithologist a bird in 

 the hand is worth a good many in the bush), I will give at 

 least a brief account of him. And first I may say that, con- 

 cerning all the Woodpeckers, an account of the habits of one 

 comes very near being an account of them all. 



Concerning their nests Mr. John Burroughs has well said: 

 ^'The Woodpeckers all build in about the same manner, 

 excavating the trunk or branch of a decayed tree and deposit- 

 ing the eggs on the fine fragments of wood at the bottom of 

 the cavity. Though the nest is not especially an artistic 

 work — requiring strength rather than skill — yet the eggs and 

 the young of few other birds are so completely housed from 

 the elements — or protected from their natural enemies, the 

 jays, crows, hawks and owls. A tree with a natural cavity 

 is never selected, but one which has been dead just long 

 enough to have become soft and brittle throughout.* The 

 bird goes in horizontally for a few inches, making a hole 

 perfectly round and smooth and adapted to his size, then 

 turns downward, gradually enlarging the hole, as he pro- 

 ceeds, to the depth of ten, fifteen, twenty inches, according 

 •to the softness of the tree and the urgency of the mother- 

 bird to deposit her eggs. While excavating, male and female 

 work alternately. After one has been engaged fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, drilling and carrying out chips, it ascends 

 to an upper limb, utters a loud call or two, when its mate 

 soon appears, and, alighting near it on the branch, the pair 

 chatter and caress a moment, then the fresh one enters the 

 cavity, and the other flies away." 



* Living trees of the softer kind are often eligible. 



