A MYSTERY 273 



the bear is not aggressive, and asks only to 

 be let alone, he is usually, and so far as I 

 can judge from the stories, unjustly, dubbed 

 " cowardly." 



A day or two after I had seen the gayly 

 clad sapsucker beside his door, I noticed 

 that, although there were still two birds 

 taking turns at the sitting, he was not one 

 of them. This aroused my interest to see 

 who had assumed his abandoned labors in 

 the nursery, and I paid closer attention. The 

 two birds changed places simultaneously ; 

 that is, one did not leave the nest until the 

 other was ready to go in, it was not left 

 alone a minute. When the incoming bird 

 reached the old trunk, she alighted on a bit 

 of broken-off branch on one side. In a mo- 

 ment the bird within flew out of the door, 

 and the new-comer went in. I could always 

 plainly see the latter because of this pause, 

 but the outgoing one went so swiftly I could 

 not see clearly. 



I soon decided that the incomer was al- 

 ways a female, or, at least, always had a white 

 throat. Were there, then, two females at- 

 tending to the business ? Was my beautiful 



