The wlieat farmers will be glad to learn that the flicker is also fond of chinch 

 bugs, for ]\Ir. llruner found nearly a thousand of thcni in the stomach of a 

 flicker that was killed near Lincoln, Nebraska. 



Hut not only do the dickers make their own meals off of ants and chinch, 

 bugs, they also feed them to the nestlings. How can they do it? Simply by 

 swallowing a great niunber of them, then going to the nest and "unswallowing'" 

 the softened food into the throats of the little ones. 



Did you ever have the peculiar experience of ap])roaching close to a flicker's 

 nest while the young were in it? ^lany a boy has done so and beaten a hasty 

 retreat. Why? IJecause he thought he had made a ,-erious mistake and was 

 about to investigate the home of a swarm of bees instead of the nest of a bird. 

 The young flickers make a loud hissing noise that sotinds so much like the buzzing 

 of angry bees that even one who knows al)ont it is \ery likel}' to be startled in 

 spite of himself. 



The flicker is one of the early spring arrivals. .\l)()Ul the twenty-third of 

 March, not many days after ihe arri\al of ihe roliin and i)luebir(l. it is well to 

 be on the watch for this gaily marked woodpecker. In fact it would be well 

 to be on the watch as early as the middle of the month. 



The flicker is an easy mark. .Vote his large size, his wav\' flight, like that 

 of the goldflnch. only the waves are longer. If he chances to fly from you, note 

 the white patch on the rump and watch for the glint of the golden lining of the 

 wings. .\h. he alights on the trrnik of a tree — woodpecker like; now you can 

 see the large scarlet patch on the Itack of the head. As he slides around the 

 tree you can see the large, black ])olk-a dots on his sides and the big black 

 crescent on his breast. 



You may see two of the dickers on the tree. Are they playing tag or 

 ]ieck-a-l)oo ? It seems like a cond)inati(Mi of those and "pus^y-wants-a-corner." 

 I low they bow and bob up and down, now scramljling around the tree, now 

 l>eeking out to see if the other is coming, then off they go to another tree and 

 biick again, and the whole interesting show is given over again and again. 



When the mating is over, they set to work to make ready the nest and get 

 the housekeeping started. Ihe illustration may gi\e some i(ka of die amount 

 of digging they do before the nest is <-ompleted. This one is in the stub of an 

 old cherry tree. The entrance is near '.lie ])ird. the bottom of the ne<t i-^ in the 

 second ])iece of the trunk. 



]/)<) 



