WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 25 



Frequently there was a shower of rain, which 

 when not accompanied by wind or lightning had 

 a softening, subduing effect upon all the forest 

 sounds. 



Two days after I had first observed the wood- 

 pecker home-makers, I found them working in- 

 dustriously in the hole which was now more than 

 three inches deep. Only a part of the chips flew 

 out of the hole as they were cut, the rest were 

 swept out from time to time by Mr. Woodpecker. 

 This feat he performed by leaning back and turn- 

 ing his head quickly, his bill acting as the broom. 



Woodpeckers often select the aspen for a nesting 

 site, probably because of its soft, easily worked 

 wood. Frequently they take dead, partly decayed 

 trees, in which nests are most easily made; and 

 dead trees, too, often are filled with grubs, ants, 

 and other woodpecker food. 



By the fifth day the woodpeckers had cut the 

 hole to a depth of about seven inches. The work- 

 ers continued at their task and finished the nest 

 to average size. After excavating seven inches 

 into the tree the entrance way curved downward 

 into the trunk to a depth of about twelve inches, 

 the lower section having a diameter of six inches. 

 j All this was the work of eleven days. 



The woodpecker's nest is one of the cleanest 

 j and safest and probably the most continuously 

 j comfortable of all birds' nests. It keeps out the 

 ! rain and excludes the extremes of cold and heat. 



