206 



STORIES OF BIRD LIFE 



yet it must have carried food, for the trips to and from 

 the nests continued at intervals of several minutes all the 

 day. Those who have had opportunity to watch the birds 

 closely tell us that the old flicker feeds the young with the 

 food from her stomach. She puts her bill into the mouth 

 of the little one and feeds it by a process of regurgitation. 

 Whether hungry or not the baby birds were always ready 

 to cry out at the least disturbance or scratching on the 

 wood at the mouth of the hole. When annoyed they would 

 make a sharp hissing noise quite like the blowing of a 

 hog-nosed adder. 



I wished to see the nest in which the little flickers were 

 p reared; so, late in the summer after they 

 ^p^ had grown up and flown away over the 

 (f fields, I cut the old stump down and, 

 ' splitting it open, soon had before me the 

 inside of the flickers' nursery. It was 

 somewhat gourd-shaped, the entrance 

 hole being at the end of the handle and 

 the largest part being at the bottom 

 twelve inches below the opening. On the 

 floor of the cavity was a thick carpet of 

 very fine chips for the family to rest on. The walls were 

 much scratched and scarred by the climbing in and out of 

 many claws. 



