MY WOODLAND INTIMATES 



the scene the chips were flying at an astonishing 

 rate. Perhaps she accosted him with : " You 

 you must not work so recklessly, dear; you will 

 be ill. Now take your well-earned rest and leave 

 all thought of toil to me for the present." 



But to return to the case of our own flickers; 

 the constructors of the two homes. What caused 

 them to abandon the earlier site after having be- 

 stowed so much time and labor on its excavation ? 

 When the interior was finally reached did it prove 

 unsatisfactory ? Were the walls unsound? Did 

 the roof leak? These and many other like ques- 

 tions I have asked myself again and again without 

 being able to arrive at any definite conclusion. 

 Had the builders gone to an entirely new locality, 

 their departure might have been ascribed to panic 

 or the presence of troublesome neighbors, or per- 

 haps to a general dissatisfaction with the old 

 maple. But what can be the meaning of a sec- 

 ond excavation in the self-same shaft, removed 

 from the first opening by about two feet only ? 



Yet this is not the first instance in which a 

 flicker has been known to drill superfluous cavi- 

 ties. In " Riverby " Mr. Burroughs tells us of 

 a flicker who " drills- into buildings and steeples 

 and telegraph poles." 



