78 WINTER NEIGHBORS. 
his drum. I was invading his privacy, desecrating 
his shrine, and the bird was much put out. After 
some weeks the female appeared; he had literally 
drummed up a mate; his urgent and oft-repeated ad- 
vertisement was answered. Still the drumming did 
not cease, but was quite as fervent as before. If a 
mate could be won by drumming she could be kept 
and entertained by more drumming; courtship should 
not end with marriage. If the bird felt musical be- 
fore, of course he felt much more so now. Besides 
that, the gentle deities needed propitiating in behalf 
of the nest and young as well as in behalf of the mate. 
After a time a second female came, when there was 
war between the two. I did not see them come to 
blows, but I saw one female pursuing the other about 
the place, and giving her no rest for several days. 
She was evidently trying to run her out of the neigh- 
borhood. Now and then she, too, would drum briefly, 
as if sending a triumphant message to her mate. 
The woodpeckers do not each have a particular dry 
limb to which they resort at all times to drum, like 
the one I have described. The woods are full of 
suitable branches, and they drum more or less here 
and there as they are in quest of food; yet I am con- 
vinced each one has its favorite spot, like the grouse, 
to which it resorts, especially in the morning. The 
sugar-maker in the maple-woods may notice that this 
sound proceeds from the same tree or trees about his 
camp with great regularity. A woodpecker in my vi- 
cinity has drummed for two seasons on a telegraph- 
pole, and he makes the wires and glass insulators ring. 
Another drums on a thin board on the end of a long 
grape-arbor, and on still mornings can be heard a 
long distance. 
ol en A A eran ree 
