WOODPECKER LIFE 



pecked rapidly. Sometimes she would throw out chips — 

 which were little more than coarse sawdust — after three or 

 foui' blows; again, she worked for a minute or two, then 

 threw out several billfuls at a time. In throwing out these 

 chips she slipped backward and forward over the lower edge 

 of the opening, after the manner of that old-fashioned toy 

 called a "supple jack." First she threw her chips to one 

 side, then to the other, till the ground beneath the burrow 

 for a space thirty feet in circumference was generously 

 sprinkled with them. 



Though several persons were watching her, and though 

 squirrels were springing about among the branches, she was 

 not disturbed, but went steadily on with her task. While she 

 was away on short vacations, the wren, dwelling in the porch 

 roof beneath, frequently investigated the hole she was dig- 

 ging — sparrows examined it, and squirrels looked into it, but 

 it was very noticeable that they all had an eye on her return. 

 Once in her absence one of her own young woodpeckers 

 scrambled to the edge of the hole and peeped in for a moment, 

 then scuttled back again to the place where the dead branch 

 joined the trunk of the tree, and in his usual noisy manner 

 demanded food. 



It was near the end of the third day's labor that the 

 woodpecker was first seen "trying on" her new home. Then 

 she went into it, and, nestling there, with head up for the 

 first time, looked out of the window. Evidently the pocket 

 was neither deep enough nor wide enough, for after this she 

 worked on both bottom and sides of it, scattering chips as 

 before. The work periods were shorter now and the rests 

 more frequent, showing that her strength was failing. On 

 the afternoon of the fifth day, when the burrow was finished, 

 completely exhausted, she made her way to the roof of the 



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