

WINTER NEIGHBORS. 161 



This, then, appears to be the usuaf-ittito*.- "The 

 wrens and the nut-hatches and chickadees succeed to 

 these abandoned cavities, and often have amusing 

 disputes over them. The nut-hatches frequently pass 

 the night in them, and the wrens and chickadees nest 

 in them. I have further observed that in excavating 

 a cavity for a nest the downy woodpecker makes the 

 entrance smaller than when he is excavating his whi- 

 ter-quarters. This is doubtless for the greater safety 

 of the young birds. 



The next fall, the downy excavated another limb 

 in the old apple-tree, but had not got his retreat quite 

 finished, when the large hairy woodpecker appeared 

 upon the scene. I heard his loud click, click, early 

 one frosty November morning. There was some- 

 thing impatient and angry in the tone that arrested 

 my attention. I saw the bird fly to the tree where 

 downy had been at work, and fall with great vio- 

 lence upon the entrance to his cavity. The bark 

 and the chips flew beneath his vigorous blows, and 

 before I fairly woke up to what he was doing, he had 

 completely demolished the neat, round doorway of 

 downy. He had made a large ragged opening large 

 enough for himself to enter. I drove him away and 

 my favorite came back, but only to survey the ruins 

 of his castle for a moment and then go away. He 

 lingered about for a day or two and then disappeared. 

 The big hairy usurper passed a night in the cavity, 

 but on being hustled out of it the next night by me, 

 he also left, but not till he had demolished the en- 



