142 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



business was with his drum. I was invading his 

 privacy, desecrating his shrine, and the bird was 

 much put out. After some weeks the female ap- 

 peared; he had literally drummed up a mate; his 

 urgent and oft-repeated advertisement 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 before, 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 neighborhood. 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 convinced 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. 



