AT PEEP OF DAY 



" One season the large imitation Greek col- 

 umns of an unoccupied old-fashioned summer 

 residence near me were badly marred by these 

 birds," he writes. A flicker " bored into one col- 

 umn, and finding the cavity a foot or more 

 across not just what it was looking for, cut into 

 another one and still into another. Then he 

 bored into the icehouse on the premises, and in 

 the sawdust filling between the outer and inner 

 sheathing found a place to his liking." 



Another flicker " seemed like a monomaniac, 

 and drilled holes up and down and right and left 

 as if possessed of an evil spirit. ... It may 

 have been that he was an unmated bird, a bache- 

 lor whose suit had not prospered that season, and 

 who was giving vent to his outraged instincts in 

 drilling these mock nesting places." * 



A tin leader at the northwest corner of our 

 house one of several pipes that conduct rain- 

 water from the roof was recently selected by a 

 flicker for his drumming purposes. This rapid, 

 rolling tattoo, played upon some resounding sub- 

 stance, is the male woodpecker's courtship call. 

 It was perhaps half-past four in the morning 

 when I was awakened by a reverberating noise 



* Mr. John Burroughs, in Riverby. 



[173] 



