130 BIRDS'-NESTS. 



against driving rains, the hole, which was 

 rather more than an inch in diameter, was 

 made immediately beneath a branch which 

 stretched out almost horizontally from the 

 main stem. It appeared merely a deeper 

 shadow upon the dark and mottled surface 

 of the bark with which the branches were 

 covered, and could not be detected by the 

 eye until one was within a few feet of it. 

 The young chirped vociferously as I ap- 

 proached the nest, thinking it was the old 

 one with food ; but the clamor suddenly 

 ceased as I put my hand on that part of the 

 trunk in which they were concealed, the un- 

 usual jarring and rustling alarming them 

 into silence. The cavity, which was about 

 fifteen inches deep, was gourd-shaped, and 

 was wrought out with great skill and regu- 

 larity. The walls were quite smooth and 

 clean and new. 



I shall never forget the circumstance of 

 observing a pair of yellow-bellied wood- 

 peckers, the most rare and secluded, and, 

 next to the red-headed, the most beautiful 

 species found in our woods, breeding in 

 an old, truncated beech in the Beaverkill 

 Mountains, an offshoot of the Catskills. We 

 had been travelling, three of us, all day in 



