276 RIVERBY 



Speaking of birds that build in cavities reminds 

 me of a curious trait the high-hole has developed in 

 my vicinity, one which I have never noticed or heard 

 of elsewhere. It drills into buildings and steeples 

 and telegraph poles, and in some instances makes 

 itself a serious nuisance. One season the large imi- 

 tation Greek columns of an unoccupied old-fashioned 

 summer residence near me were badly marred by 

 them. The bird bored into one column, and find- 

 ing the cavity — a foot or more across — not just 

 what it was looking for, cut into another one, eCnd 

 still into another. Then he bored into the ice-house 

 on the premises, and in the sawdust filling between 

 the outer and inner sheathing found a place to his 

 liking. One bird seemed like a monomaniac, and 

 drilled holes up and down and right and left as if 

 possessed of an evil spirit. It is quite probable that 

 if a high-hole or other woodpecker should go crazy, 

 it would take to just this sort of thing, drilling into 

 seasoned timber till it used its strength up. The 

 one I refer to would cut through a dry hemlock board 

 in a very short time, making the slivers fly. The 

 sound was like that of a carpenter's hammer. It 

 may have been that he was an unmated bird, a bach- 

 elor whose suit had not prospered that season, and 

 who was giving vent to his outraged instincts in 

 drilling these mock nesting- places. 



