228 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



three very different ways. In fact, they are in- 

 dividuals, not three dittos to the name " barred 

 owl." 



One summer I caught and caged three young 

 sap-sucking woodpeckers, as they were prepar- 

 ing to fly from their ancestral castle tower in 

 the Chocorua forest. It might fairly be pre- 

 sumed that three birds just out of the nest, and 

 that nest a dark hole far up in a poplar trunk, 

 would be as nearly alike as three dimes from 

 the same mint. The opposite was true. Num- 

 ber One was a hardy bird, which flew the mo- 

 ment the axe was struck into the poplar's bole. 

 Number Three was a weakling, that stayed in 

 the hole until pulled out by hand. So it was 

 later, as they grew older and larger. One was 

 a bully, with a loud voice and too much animal 

 spirits for the size of his cage. Another was 

 quiet, meditative, and fond of a sunny corner of 

 his box. In the autumn, when I let the birds 

 out to frolic in a barn chamber, this quiet bird 

 was always the last to quit his perch in favor of 

 half-freedom. Number Three continued to be 

 the smallest, weakest, and least hungry of the 

 three birds ; but she was quicker than Number 

 Two, and seemed to get more out of life than he 

 did. From the hour when I took these little 

 birds away from their nest, I never failed to 

 recognize each of them as having individual 

 characteristics not possessed by the others. 



