WINTER NEIGHBORS 



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 

 neighborhood. Now and then, she, too, 

 would drum briefly, as if sending a triumph- 

 ant 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 de- 

 scribed. 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 convinced 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 vicinity 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. 



A friend of mine in a Southern city tells 

 33 



