Sherman — Sign of Northern Flicker. 165 



Some seasons the parents take their younq' away from the 

 neighborhood as soon as possible, but in others, as was the 

 case this year, they remain' constantly about the place for 

 several weeks until the family ties are loosened. These ties 

 do not appear to be entirely broken during the rest of the 

 summer, there being times when apparently the whole fam- 

 ily has a joyful gathering on the roof of the barn, or in the 

 top of a dead willow tree. Again just before their hour 

 for going to roost four or five of them, having found a 

 luxurious bed of dust, disport themselves therein with evi- 

 dently as keen enjoyment as a duck finds in water. Flickers, 

 like other members of the Woodpecker family, have little 

 use for water. During many hours, all of which taken to- 

 gether would amount to weeks I have watched from a blind 

 a pool of water much frequented by the birds for drinking 

 and bathing purposes. Near it stands the dead willow vis- 

 ited daily by Red-headed Woodpeckers and Flickers ; there 

 the former have never been seen to drink, and the latter on 

 two occasions only. The first time it was the tame old male 

 that backed down a fence post to the surface of the water 

 and drank while clinging to the post. 



Aside from occasional rather curious exhibitions of court- 

 ship the late summer interests in the Flicker center about 

 his food habits, his moult, and his roosting. All seven boxes 

 in the barn have been used for roosting purposes this year, 

 only five, however, at one time. For the first time a female 

 has had a chance to occupy a box after the nesting season 

 was over: formerly she was driven out by the males. In it.s 

 summer roosts the Flicker is one of the most immaculate of 

 lodgers. When he leaves for the south after several months 

 of occupancy of a box no droppings of any kind can be found 

 there except some of his moulted feathers, remaining as little 

 tokens of the excellent bird that spends just half of the year 

 as a sharer of our home. But in the nesting boxes some 

 signs of the Flicker's inhabitancy are permanent : these are 

 the places hewed by their chiseling bills. In the last box 



