UNDER THE MAPLES 



something with the bark on — a section of a dry 

 beech or maple Hmb in which the downy wood- 

 pecker has excavated his chamber and passed the 

 winter or reared his brood; fasten it in early spring 

 upon the corner of your porch, or on the trunk of 

 a near-by tree, and see what interesting neighbors 

 you will soon have. One summer I brought home 

 from one of my walks to the woods a section, two 

 or three feet long, of a large yellow birch limb 

 which contained such a cavity as I speak of, and 

 I wired it to one of the posts of the rustic porch at 

 Woodchuck Lodge. The next season a pair of 

 bluebirds reared two broods in it. The incubation 

 of the eggs for the second brood was well under 

 way when I appeared upon the scene in early July. 

 My sudden presence so near their treasures, and my 

 lingering there with books and newspapers, dis- 

 turbed the birds a good deal. The first afternoon the 

 mother bird did not enter the cavity for hours. I shall 

 always remember the pretty and earnest manner in 

 which the male tried to reassure her and persuade 

 her that the danger was not so imminent as it 

 appeared to be, probably encouraging a confidence 

 in his mate which he did not himself share. The 

 mother bird would alight at the entrance to the 

 chamber, but, with her eye fixed upon the man 

 with the newspaper, feared to enter. The male, 

 perched upon the telegraph wire fifty feet away, 

 would raise his wings and put all the love and 



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