HOW THE WOODPECKER MAKES A HOUSE 23 



they lie in the hole, he sweeps them out with his 

 bill and pelts again at the same place. The 

 pair take turns at the work. Who knows how 

 long they work before resting ? Do they take 

 turns of equal length ? Does one work more 

 than the other? A pair of flickers will dig 

 about two inches in a day, the hole being nearly 

 two and a half inches in diameter. A week or 

 more is consumed in digging the nest, which, 

 among the flickers, is commonly from ten to 

 eighteen inches deep. The hole usually runs in 

 horizontally for a few inches and then curves 

 down, ending in a chamber large enough to 

 make a comfortable nest for the mother and her 

 babies. 



What a good time the little ones have in their 

 hole ! Rain and frost cannot chill them ; no 

 enemy but the red squirrel is likely to disturb 

 them. There they He in their, warm, dark cham- 

 ber, looking up at the ray of light that comes in 

 the doorway, until at last they hear the scratch- 

 ing of their mother's feet as she alights on the 

 outside of the tree and clambers up to feed them. 

 What a piping and calling they raise inside the 

 hole, and how they all scramble up the walls of 

 their chamber and thrust out their beaks to be 

 fed, till the old tree looks as if it were blossom- 

 ing with little woodpeckers' hungry mouths ! 



