WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



and the gaudy red-head has become uncommon 

 east of the Blue Ridge. 



Our friend^ the flicker, however, takes the world 

 as he finds it, and perhaps fares even better among 

 the partial clearings, orchards, and shaded road- 

 ways left to him by civilization than he might 

 in primeval forests. He is even adaptive enough, 

 now and then, to bore a hole in a barn-timber, 

 or even to save himself that labor by taking pos- 

 session of some accidental cavity about the farm 

 buildings and rearing a brood there. As a rule, 

 however, the pair like to chisel out their own fresh 

 tenement each season; and sometimes will amuse 

 themselves by digging in midwinter a beautiful cav- 

 ity, w^hich cannot be occupied for several months, 

 and probably will be entirely forgotten. The eggs 

 are pure white, enamelled on the surface like great 

 pearls; and an extraordinary circumstance con- 

 nected with the bird's breeding is that if the eggs 

 be removed, one by one, the hen will continue lay- 

 ing indefinitely. It is on record that one pair, 

 cruelly tested, laid seventy-one eggs in seventy- 

 three days before ceasing. They are ordinarily 

 more prolific than other species, raising from six 

 to ten at a brood, and thus sustaining their race 

 against the constant shooting to which they are 



3^^ 



