THE FLICKER 67 



looked more in earnest. At other times the 

 flicker contents himself with a piece of resonant 

 loose bark or a dry limb. 



One proof that this drumming which is 

 indulged in by woodpeckers generally is a 

 true musical performance, and not a mere drill- 

 ing for grubs, is the fact that we never hear it 

 in winter. It begins as the weather grows mild, 

 and is as much a sign of spring as the peeping 

 of the little tree-frogs hylas in the meadow. 



The flicker's nest, as I have said, is built in a 

 hole in a tree, often an apple-tree. Very noisy 

 in his natural disposition, he keeps a wise silence 

 while near the spot where his mate is sitting, and 

 will rear a brood under the orchard-owner's nose 

 without betraying himself. The young birds 

 are fed from the parent's crop, as young pigeons 

 and young hummingbirds are. The old bird 

 thrusts its bill down the throat of the nestling 

 and gives it a meal of partially digested food by 

 what scientific people call a process of regurgita- 

 tion. Farmers' boys, who have watched pigeons 

 feeding their squabs, will know precisely what is 

 meant. 



