348 Bird - Lore 



proposed — quiet ones — strutting, bowing, spreading the feathers, twisting the 

 neck, oghng the head, beating a tattoo, playing hide and seek round the trunks 

 of the Japanese cherry, the silver birch, and the elms. Then one flies away to 

 become a winner elsewhere and the other two think of a home. 



To last year's haunts they go. The English Sparrows had found that long, 

 deep hole and filled it with chicken feathers, moss, sticks, strings, etc., and the 

 two birds work hard at house-cleaning for several days. The falling trash 

 testifies to their industry. The theory that nests are used but once is not true 

 of all birds. I have, repeatedly, seen a nest, such as borers make, used the second 

 time. The glossy, white eggs, for which such elaborate preparations have been 



"THE GIANT ELM WHICH HAD BEEN THE HOME OF HIS KIN FOR OVER A GENERATION' 



made, lie snug and safe in this dark, warm hole, and a new task confronts the 

 husband. Patiently and unceasingly he bestows his 'Flicker' care on the chosen 

 partner of his toils. She calls him to take her place when she needs air, food, 

 and water — and he always answers. The purple flush of incoming day in- 

 variably brings him to her, with the caressing yicker, yicker, yicker of his love- 

 song. Little they think of tragedy, of disaster, as they wait the day when 

 shells burst and tiny, wet bodies press against them, opening huge mouths 

 blindly and awkwardly for nourishment. 



In due time five move and eat. Father and mother fly away for another 

 morsel, when, without warning, the limb falls, breaking into fragments as 

 the soft wood hits the hard earth forty feet away. 



A still cloudless day it is, and I was watching the excitement and unusual 

 activities of the parents, thinking the mother's patient wait was over. Going to 



