WINTER NEIGHBORS 



succeed to these abandoned cavities, and 

 often have amusing disputes over them. 

 The nuthatches frequently pass the night in 

 them, and the wrens and chickadees nest in 

 them. I have further observed that in ex- 

 cavating a cavity for a nest the downy wood- 

 pecker makes the entrance smaller than 

 when he is excavating his winter-quarters. 

 This is doubtless for the greater safety of 

 the young birds. 



The next fall the downy excavated another 

 limb in the old apple-tree, but had not got 

 his retreat quite finished when the large 

 hairy woodpecker appeared upon the scene. 

 I heard his loud dicky click, early one frosty 

 November morning. There was something 

 impatient and angry in the tone that arrested 

 my attention. I saw the bird fly to the tree 

 where downy had been at work, and fall 

 with great violence upon the entrance to his 

 cavity. The bark and the chips flew beneath 

 his vigorous blows, and, before I fairly woke 

 up to what he was doing, he had completely 

 demolished the neat, round doorway of 

 downy. He had made a large, ragged open- 

 ing, large enough for himself to enter. I 

 drove him away and my favorite came back, 

 but only to survey the ruins of his castle for 



39 



