WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



and the gaudy red-head has become uncommon 

 east of the Blue Ridge. 



Our friend, the flicker, however, takes the world 

 as he finds it, and perhaps fares even better among 

 the partial clearings, orchards, and shaded road- 

 ways left to him by civilization than he might 

 in primeval forests. He is even adaptive enough, 

 now and then, to bore a hole in a barn-timber, 

 or even to save himself that labor by taking pos- 

 session of some accidental cavity about the farm 

 buildings and rearing a brood there. As a rule, 

 however, the pair like to chisel out their own fresh 

 tenement each season; and sometimes will amuse 

 themselves by digging in midwinter a beautiful cav- 

 ity, which cannot be occupied for several months, 

 and probably will be entirely forgotten. The eggs 

 are pure white, enamelled on the surface like great 

 pearls; and an extraordinary circumstance con- 

 nected with the bird's breeding is that if the eggs 

 be removed, one by one, the hen will continue lay- 

 ing indefinitely. It is on record that one pair, 

 cruelly tested, laid seventy-one eggs in seventy- 

 three days before ceasing. They are ordinarily 

 more prolific than other species, raising from six 

 to ten at a brood, and thus sustaining their race 

 against the constant shooting to which they are 



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