158 WINTER NEIGHBORS. 



hear the insect it has alarmed." He listens rather to 

 hear the drum of his rival or the brief and coy re- 

 sponse of the female ; for there are no insects in these 

 dry limbs. 



On one occasion I saw downy at his drum when a 

 female flew quickly through the tree and alighted a 

 few yards beyond him. He paused instantly, and 

 kept his place apparently without moving a muscle. 

 The female, I took it, had answered his advertise- 

 ment. She flitted about from limb to limb (the 

 female may be known by the absence of the crimson 

 spot on the back of the head), apparently full of 

 business of her own, and now and then would drum 

 in a shy, tentative manner. The male watched her 

 a few moments, and, convinced perhaps that she 

 meant business, struck up his liveliest tune, then list- 

 ened for her response. As it came back timidly but 

 promptly, he left his perch and sought a nearer ac- 

 quaintance with the prudent female. Whether or 

 not a match grew out of this little flirtation I cannot 

 say. 



Our smaller woodpeckers are sometimes accused 

 of injuring the apple and other fruit trees, but the 

 depredator is probably the larger and rarer yellow- 

 bellied species. One autumn I caught one of these 

 fellows in the act of sinking long rows of his little 

 wells in the limb of an apple-tree. There were series 

 of rings of them, one above another, quite around 

 the stem, some of them the third of an inch across. 

 They are evidently made to get at the tender, juicy 



