BIRD LIFE IN AN OLD APPLE-TREE 43 



butternut through the trees. The beak of the latter 

 would click like a gunlock, and its harsh, savage 

 voice was full of anger, but the bluebird never 

 flinched, and was always ready to renew the fight. 



The English sparrow will sometimes worst the 

 bluebird by getting possession of the box or cavity 

 ahead of him. Once inside, the sparrow can hold 

 the fort, and the bluebird will soon give up the 

 siege; but in a fair field and no favor, the native 

 bird will quickly rout the foreigner. 



Speaking of birds that build in cavities reminds 

 me of a curious trait the high-hole has developed in 

 my vicinity, one which I have never noticed or heard 

 of elsewhere. It drills into buildings and steeples 

 and telegraph poles, and in some instances makes 

 itself a serious nuisance. One season the large imi 

 tation Greek columns of an unoccupied old-fash 

 ioned summer residence near me were badly marred 

 by them. The bird bored into one column, and find 

 ing the cavity a foot or more across not just 

 what it was looking for, cut into another one, and 

 into still another. Then he bored into the ice-house 

 on the premises, and in the sawdust filling between 

 the outer and inner sheathing found a place to his 

 liking. One bird seemed like a monomaniac, and 

 drilled holes up and down and right and left, as if 

 possessed of an evil spirit. It is quite probable that 

 if a high-hole or other woodpecker should go crazy, 

 it would take to just this sort of thing, drilling into 



