164 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



I allowed the saucer to become dry, the wood- 

 peckers drummed more and more vigorously un- 

 til I supplied their needs. Sometimes all three 

 birds would drink at once. They were astir by 

 5.30 Jt. M., and still noisy at 8 P. M. On July 

 20, my notes say, " They are perfectly healthy 

 and happy." 



About noon on July 28, the door of the wood- 

 peckers' cage was opened by mistake, and not 

 long after, I discovered that Three had escaped 

 for a second time. I searched for her in vain. 

 The next day rain fell in torrents all the fore- 

 noon. About one o'clock, the cry of a sapsucker 

 was heard through the closed windows of the 

 house, and Three was discovered clinging to the 

 piazza railing just in front of my study window. 

 She was wet and dismal. I tried to catch her 

 with my hand, but she flew to the nearest tree 

 trunk, where I secured her by throwing a piece 

 of soft mosquito netting over her. The moment 

 I placed her in the cage she fastened herself 

 beside the cup and drank many times. After 

 satisfying her hunger, she retired to the darkest 

 corner of the cage to dry and doze. The other 

 birds paid no attention to her. 



On July 25, two downy woodpeckers were 

 working in my orchard. Taking a trout rod and 

 line, I made a small slip-noose at the end of the 

 tip joint and poked it into the tree where one of 



