BIRD LIFE IN AN OLD APPLE-TREE 273 



Its wells are usually sunk to a depth of six or eight 

 inches, but in the present case it cannot be sunk 

 more than four inches without breaking through into 

 the old cavity. Downy seems to have considered 

 the situation, and is proceeding cautiously. As she 

 passed last night in her new quarters I am inclined 

 to think it is about finished, and there must be at 

 least one inch of wood beneath her. She worked 

 vigorously the greater part of the day, her yellow 

 chips strewing the snow beneath. I paused several 

 times to observe her proceedings. After her chips 

 accumulate she stops her drilling and throws them 

 out. This she does with her beak, shaking them 

 out very rapidly with a flirt of her head. She did 

 not disappear from sight each time to load her beak, 

 but withdrew her head and appeared to seize the 

 fragments as if from her feet. If she had had a 

 companion I should have thought he was hand- 

 ing them up to her from the bottom of the cavity. 

 Maybe she had them piled up near the doorway. 



The woodpeckers, both the hairy and the downy, 

 usually excavate these winter retreats in the fall. 

 They pass the nights and the stormy days in them. 

 So far as I have observed, they do not use them as 

 nesting-places the following season. Last night 

 when I rapped on the trunk of the old apple-tree 

 near sundown, downy put out her head with a sur- 

 prised and inquiring look, and then withdrew it 

 again as I passed on. 



I have spoken of the broods of the great crested 

 flycatchers that have been reared in the old apple- 



