WINTER NEIGHBORS 



sitting there by his wells hour after hour, 

 and as fast as they became filled sipping out 

 the sap. This he did in a gentle, caressing 

 manner that was very suggestive. He made 

 a row of wells near the foot of the tree, and 

 other rows higher up, and he would hop up 

 and down the trunk as these became filled. 

 He would hop down the tree backward with 

 the utmost ease, throwing his tail outward 

 and his head inward at each hop. When the 

 wells would freeze up or his thirst become 

 slaked, he would ruffle his feathers, draw 

 himself together, and sit and doze in the 

 sun on the side of the tree. He passed 

 the night in a hole in an apple-tree not far 

 off. He was evidently a young bird, not yet 

 having the plumage of the mature male or 

 female, and yet he knew which tree to tap 

 and where to tap it. I saw where he had 

 bored several maples in the vicinity, but no 

 oaks or chestnuts. I nailed up a fat bone 

 near his sap-works : the downy woodpecker 

 came there several times a day to dine ; the 

 nuthatch came, and even the snowbird took 

 a taste occasionally ; but this sapsucker 

 never touched it — the sweet of the tree 

 sufficed for him. This woodpecker does 

 not breed or abound in my vicinity; only 



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