274 IN A LOG CAMP 



sapsucker a Mormon ? or had he called in 

 an unattached neighbor to take his place ? 



This was a mystery, and closer study 

 deepened it. On several occasions in the 

 little flurry of arrival and departure I saw 

 both the sitters together, and then I saw 

 that while both of them had the white throat 

 and breast, one had a narrow stripe of red 

 on the head, and the other had an entirely 

 black crown. 



Nor was this the only sapsucker problem. 

 Several times there came around the house 

 a fourth member of the family who had a 

 heavy black breast, but no red on throat or 

 crown. This was my dilemma : the perfect- 

 plumaged male with black breast-plate and 

 full crown and throat of red belonged to the 

 nest, for I saw him go in and out many times. 



Who, then, was the bird with narrow red 

 stripe on the head and the white throat of a 

 female, so devoted to the nest ? 



If the red-striped bird was the mate of 

 the perfect male, who was the black-crowned 

 one ? Was one of the two a friendly neigh- 

 bor ? In a word, which was which, and who 

 was the other ? 



