BIRD LIFE IN AN OLD APPLE-TREE 279 



One bird seemed like a monomaniac, and 

 drilled holes up and down and right and left as 

 if possessed of an evil spirit. It is quite prob- 

 able that if a high-hole or other woodpecker 

 should go crazy, it would take to just this sort 

 of thing, drilling into seasoned timber till it 

 used its strength up. The one I refer to would 

 cut through a dry hemlock board in a very 

 short time, making the slivers fly. The sound 

 was like that of a carpenter's hammer. It may 

 have been that he was an unmated bird, a bach- 

 elor whose suit had not prospered that season, 

 and who was giving vent to his outraged instincts 

 in drilling these mock nesting-places. 



