78 WINTER NEIGHBORS. 



his drum. I was invading his privacy, desecrating 

 his shrine, and the bird was much put out. After 

 some weeks the female appeared ; he had literally 

 drummed up a mate ; his urgent and oft-repeated ad- 

 vertisement was answered. Still the drumming did 

 not cease, but was quite as fervent as before. If a 

 mate could be won by drumming she could be kept 

 and entertained by more drumming ; courtship should 

 not end with marriage. If the bird felt musical be- 

 fore, of course he felt much more so now. Besides 

 that, the gentle deities needed propitiating in behalf 

 of the nest and young as well as in behalf of the mate. 

 After a time a second female came, when there was 

 war between the two. I did not see them come to 

 blows, but I saw one female pursuing the other about 

 the place, and giving her no rest for several days. 

 She was evidently trying to run her out of the neigh- 

 borhood. Now and then she, too, would drum briefly, 

 as if sending a triumphant message to her mate. 



The woodpeckers do not each have a particular dry 

 limb to which they resort at all times to drum, like 

 the one I have described. The woods are full of 

 suitable branches, and they drum more or less here 

 and there as they are in quest of food ; yet I am con- 

 vinced each one has its favorite spot, like the grouse, 

 to which it resorts, especially in the morning. The 

 sugar-maker in the maple-woods may notice that this 

 sound proceeds from the same tree or trees about his 

 camp with great regularity. A woodpecker in my vi- 

 cinity has drummed for two seasons on a telegraph- 

 pole, and he makes the wires and glass insulators ring. 

 Another drums on a thin board on the end of a long 

 grape-arbor, and on still mornings can be heard a 

 long distance. 



