70 PREPARING THE HOME. 



males than mates, the love-call may occasionally be heard 

 until the summer fervours evaporate the energy which was 

 inspired by the young, fresh spring. 



The two woodpeckers, male and female, having selected 

 the tree which is to be their home and nursery, proceed to 

 the construction of their nest. Should there be no natural 

 hole in the trunk, they begin to make one ; working to- 

 o-ether, and working so strenuously that the strokes of their 

 sharp bills cannot be followed up by ear or eye. Do not 

 censure them as remorseless enemies of the forest, however; 

 for they never attack a tree which has not felt the influ- 

 ence of decay. It is in an unsound tree that they neces- 

 sarily find insects most plentiful ; and, moreover, its tim- 

 ber is most easily excavated. To attack a healthy tree 

 would be to incur immense labour for a trifling recompense. 



Their mode of using their bill is peculiar. Their opera- 

 tions have been compared to those of the carpenter ; but, 

 in truth, they have a closer resemblance to those of the 

 mason, for they dig away at the timber as a mason does at 

 a block of granite which he wishes to perforate. Further, 

 they are careful not to make the cavity wider than is ab- 

 solutely essential for their o^vn egress and ingress. They 

 usually burrow so deeply as eflectually to insure the safety 

 of their eggs during their occasional absences ; and they 

 also take heed to select some hidden or out-of-sight part of 

 the tree. Tlie sound of their bills when at work — not un- 

 like "the grinding of a thick piece of steel on a rather 

 smooth stone" — is audible at a considerable distance; but 

 though the wayfarer may detect the sound, he will not 

 easily discover the birds. " This," says an acute observer, 



