156 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



species, seem at first to be rather shy of the males, and can he 

 won only with the greatest difficulty. But in a short time. 

 this feeling of reserve has dissappeared, and their whole at- 

 tention seems to be fixed upon devising plans to worry and 

 fret their suitors. The character of a flirt is personated 

 with the greatest exactness. After her wooer has been 

 doing his best to please her by the elegance and grace of 

 iiis movements, and the sweetness of his song, for it must 

 be confessed that there is something about it which is pe- 

 culiarly fascinating according to our standard of taste, she 

 turns away from his endeavors, and instantly begins to lavish 

 her caresses upon another. This unhappy event is the pre- 

 lude to a fierce encounter between the rival females, in which 

 the males are eventually forced to act as accomplices on one 

 side or the otheV. But the quarrel soon over, the contending 

 males again resume their courtship, but with better success 

 than before. The recent events have rendered the respective 

 females, less fickle, and more disposed to treat with favor 

 the attentions of their respective suitors. The advances are 

 now more easy and rapid. And, after an eventful courtship, 

 varying from three to five days, accordingto the fickleness, or 

 remarkably staid character of the females, matrimonial re- 

 lations are assumed, and the wedded pair start oft' on a tour 

 of pleasure and recreation. After two or three days thus 

 spent, they return and look about for a suitable tree in which 

 to excavate a nest. 



Sometimes the hole is excavated at a great height, but 

 usually less than six feet from the ground. Instances are 

 known where the perforation was more than forty feet high. 

 When such an altitude is reached, the tree is invariably situ- 

 ated in a high-timbered forest. In localities in close proxim- 

 : tv to human habitations, the apple-tree is mainly chosen. 

 The nest is generally built in a hollow trunk or branch, 

 and occasionally in the solid wood itself. The astonishing 

 sagacity with which a hollow limb is discovered under a 

 sound bark, is seldom equalled by an}' of our feathered 



