AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 147 



rear. But I never saw any evidence of retaliation on his part, only an 

 assumption of serene and dignified indifference to his assailants. 



Aut alas, what was once the abode of winged happiness and dissen- 

 sion is now but a patch of brown stalks and stunted pigeon-grass, but 

 I am glad to record that the crop that thrived so well under the tillage 

 of Thoreau, did not "yield" in this instance, and the industrious farm- 

 er who "wants beans" in return for the bitter-sweet, will have to seek 



them elsewhere. 



Alberta Field. 



TRIALS AND TROUBLES OF BIRDS, 



Birds generally are rightly credited with having a good stock of 

 common sense, but occasionally we come across one who is sadly de- 

 ficient in this respect. A pair of Flickers spent a good deal of time 

 and as much more hard work on the shaft box of an old wind mill that 

 had had all the machinery blown off. The box was in the top of the 

 tower about twenty feet from the ground. The birds sounded it and 

 found it was hollow so they decided that they had found an unusually 

 good location for their nest. By going to the top of the box they 

 could have seen clear through it, but they began work about eighteen 

 inches from the top, and hammered away until they had made a hole 

 large enough for them to enter. Poor birds, they must have been 

 considerably surprised and humiliated to find that their intended house 

 had neither roof nor floor. 



I have always felt sorry for the little Screech Owl when the wood- 

 peckers returned in the spring and found that their old nesting sites 

 were occupied and that the present owners were engaged in the quiet 

 occupation of setting. The poor little owls had to get out and hunt 

 mice every night and then be bothered all day by a pack of woodpeck- 

 ers who scratched and clawed up and down the tree. How poor Asios 

 ears must ring when they pound on the hollow place just above the 

 nest, and then every once in a while, one of them will poke his head 

 into that hole and say mean things to the occupant. And when sev- 

 eral came at once they would talk so harsh to each other, bobbing their 

 heads and uttering that rasping call, just like the whetting of a scythe. 

 But the owls had possession and did not leave until after the Flickers 

 had gone to bed at night, and they always got back before the 

 woodpeckers got around in the morning. 



A. K. liOVlEs. 



