2i8 Bird -Lore 



was never able definitely to determine when the eggs were deposited, or, for 

 that matter, much of anything that transpired within the box. They had 

 not long hatched the young, however, before I discovered that fact by observ- 

 ing the i)arents carrying food to them. 



Bright and happy days for the birds, old and young, ensued, until one 

 morning before breakfast (May 9) two Red-headed Woodpeckers arrived on 

 the scene and inspected the box. I did not attach much signiticance to this 

 and contented myself, before leaving for my office, with frightening them 

 away by vigorous gesticulations and by small sticks thrown at them. These 

 methods seemed to suffice for the time. Later in the day, however, I 

 received a message that the Woodpeckers were enlarging the entrance and 

 possessing the box, throwing out the young Nuthatches — three having already 

 been cast to the ground — and altogether evicting the parents, which, grief- 

 stricken, were looking on from nearby stations. The red-headed ruffians were 

 at the box when I reached home that afternoon but they disappeared at my 

 approach. I procured my gun and took a position from which I would be sure 

 to reach them if they returned. I had not long to wait. One of them alighted 

 at the entrance of the box. I fired and the bird fell to the ground directly under 

 the box. Both of the Nuthatches flew to the base of the tree and, clinging 

 there within a foot of the ground, regarded the Woodpecker for more than a 

 minute, with exhibitions of keen satisfaction and exultation. 



I found another of the young Nuthatches dead a few feet away from the 

 tree. None of the young birds was mutilated to any extent, from which cir- 

 cumstance it seems probable that the Woodpeckers were not in quest of food, 

 but distinctly bent on mischief. 



The following morning another Red-head appeared, and 1 promptly dis- 

 patched him. But, alas, the home of the Nuthatches had been desolated, and, 

 while for a day or two they would sit upon the box for a few minutes and 

 occasionally look in the entrance, they never went in, and finally abandoned the 

 place. I shortly removed the box as the sight of it kept alive in me distressing 

 recollections of this pathetic incident. 



As I write this, some months afterward, 1 can add that, although the Nut- 

 hatches abandoned the box and its immediate vicinity, they remained in the 

 neighborhood thereafter and are still here, occasionally feeding on the sun- 

 flowers in my garden. Provision will be made for them during the coming 

 winter, and a box will be erected for them in the spring. Red-headed Wood- 

 peckers, beware!* 



*In justice to Red-headed Woodpeckers as a race, I should say that by no means are they all so 

 demoniacal as those above mentioned. There are good and bad in all races, avian or human, and the 

 race should not be condemned for the misdeeds of some individuals. 



