30 WINTER NEIGHBORS. 



kept hia place, apparently without moving a muscle. 

 The female, I took it, had answered his advertisement. 

 She flitted about from limb to limb (the female may 

 be known by the absence of the crimson spot on the 

 back of the head), apparently full of business of her 

 own, and now and then w r ould drum in a shy, tenta- 

 tive manner. The male watched her a few mo- 

 ments, and, conTinced perhaps that she meant busi= 

 ness, struck up his liveliest tune, then listened for her 

 response. As it came back timidly but promptly, he 

 left his perch and sought a nearer acquaintance with 

 the prudent female. Whether or not a match grew 

 out of this little flirtation I cannot sav. 



Our smaller woodpeckers are sometimes accused of 

 injuring the apple and other fruit trees, but the depre- 

 dator is probably the larger and rarer yellow-bellied 

 species. One autumn I caught one of these fellows in 

 the act of sinking long rows of his little wells in the 

 limb of an apple-tree. There were series of rings of 

 them, one above another, quite around the stem, some 

 of them the third of an inch across. They are evi- 

 dently made to get at the tender, juicy bark, or cam- 

 bium layer, next to the hard wood of the tree. The 

 health and vitality of the branch are so seriously im- 

 paired by them that it often dies. 



In the following winter the same bird (probably} 

 tapped a maple-tree in front of my window in fifty-sis. 

 places ; and when the day was sunny, and the sap 

 oozed out, he spent most of his time there. He knew 

 the good sap-days, and was on hand promptly for his 

 tipple ; cold and cloudy days he did not appear. He 

 knew which side of the tree to tap, too, and avoided 

 the sunless northern exposure. When one series of 

 well-holes failed to supply him, he would sink anotner, 



