IV 



HOW THE WOODPECKER MAKES A HOUSE 



woodpeckers make their houses in the 

 wood of trees, either the trunk or one of the 

 branches. Almost the only exceptions to this 

 rule are those that live in the treeless countries 

 of the West. In the torrid deserts of Arizona 

 and the Southwest, some species are obliged to 

 build in the thorny branches of giant cacti, 

 which there grow to an enormous size. In the 

 treeless plains to the northward, a few individ- 

 uals, for lack of anything so suitable as the 

 cactus, dig holes in clay banks, or even lay their 

 eggs upon the surface of the prairie. In a coun- 

 try where chimney swallows nest in deserted 

 houses, and sand martins burrow in the sides of 

 wells, who wonders at the flicker's thinking that 

 the side of a haystack, the hollow of a wheel- 

 hub, or the cavity under an old ploughshare, 

 is an ideal home? But in wooded countries 

 the woodpeckers habitually nest in trees. The 

 only exceptions I know are a few flickers' holes 

 in ol^-posts ? and a few instances where flickers 



