THE WOODPECKER'S HOLE 409 



known to go to the enormous trouble of carrying 

 away the chips to a distance, I have known ten 

 which left them exactly as they fell. The excava- 

 tion of the hole was the work of many days ; and, 

 as soon as it was finished, a pushing, self-assertive 

 starling determined, as it too often does, to appro- 

 priate her labours. The woodpecker is a peaceful 

 bird ; I would almost say, she is for ''peace at any 

 price." "Anything for a quiet life" would seem to 

 be her motto. She will allow herself to be ejected 

 by a starling, whom she could kill with one stroke 

 of her powerful bill. She will even allow, as I have 

 more than once observed, a nut-hatch, a bird not 

 half her size, to take possession of her hole, and 

 calmly to plaster it up with mud, till it is of a size 

 to admit no bird bigger than herself. Strange that 

 a bird so eminently pacific, or one so closely akin 

 to her as the black woodpecker, picus martins, 

 should have been selected to be the sacred bird of 

 Mars ; that she should have been allowed to join 

 the she-wolf in nursing his infant twins, Romulus 

 and Remus ; and should, ever afterwards, have 

 been regarded not only as one of the most weather- 

 wise of birds, but also as one of the most trustworthy 

 birds of omen, by the most martial people that 

 ever lived, the conquerors of the world, the ancient 



