Tb WINTER NEIGHBORS. 



his drum. I was invading his privacy, desecrating 

 his shrine, and the bird was much put out. After 

 some weeks the female appeared ; he had literally 

 drummed up a mate ; his urgent and oft-repeated ad- 

 vertisement was answered. Still the drumming die) 

 not cease, but was quite as fervent as before. If a 

 mate could be won by drumming she could be kept 

 and entertained by more drumming ; courtship should 

 not end with marriage. If the bird felt musical be 

 fore, of course he felt much more so now. Besides 

 that, the gentle deities needed propitiating in behalf 

 of the nest and young as well as in behalf of the mate. 

 After a time a second female came, when there was 

 war between the two. I did not see them come to 

 blows, but I saw one female pursuing the other about 

 the place, and giving her no rest for several days. 

 She was evidently trying to run her out of the neigh- 

 borhood. Now and then she, too, would drum briefly, 

 as if sending a triumphant message to her mate. 



The woodpeckers do not each have a particular dry 

 limb to which they resort at all times to drum, like 

 the one I have described. The woods are full of 

 suitable branches, and thev drum more or less here 

 and there as they are in quest of food ; yet I am con- 

 vinced each one has its favorite spot, like the grouse, 

 to which it resorts, especially in the morning. The 

 sugar-maker in the maple-woods may notice that this 

 sound proceeds from the same tree or trees about his 

 camp with great regularity. A woodpecker in my vi- 

 cinity has drummed for two seasons on a telegraph- 

 pole, and he makes the wires and glass insulators ring 

 Another drums on a thin board on the end of a long 

 grape-arbor, and on still mornings can be heard o 

 long distance. 



