22 THE WOODPECKERS 



feet from the ground, though most frequently it 

 will be found not less than ten nor more than 

 thirty feet up. However odd the location finally 

 occupied, it is likely that it was not the first one 

 selected. A woodpecker will dig half a dozen 

 houses rather than occupy an undesirable tene- 

 ment. It is very common to find their unfin- 

 ished holes and the wider-mouthed, shallower 

 pockets which they dig for winter quarters ; for 

 those that spend their winters in the cold North 

 make a hole to live in nights and cold and 

 stormy days. 



The first step in building is to strike out a 

 circle in the bark as large as the doorway is to 

 be; that is, from an inch and a half to three 

 or four inches in diameter according to the size 

 of the woodpecker. It is nearly always a perfect 

 circle. Try, if you please, to draw freehand a 

 circle of dots as accurate as that which the wood- 

 pecker strikes out hurriedly with his bill, and see 

 whether it is easy to do as well as he does. 



If the size and shape of the doorway suit him, 

 the woodpecker scales off the bark inside his 

 circle of holes and begins his hard work. He 

 seems to take off his coat and work in his shirt- 

 sleeves, so vigorously does he labor as he clings 

 with his stout toes, braced in position by his 

 pointed tail. The chips fly out past him, or if 



