54 NATURE IN ACADIE. 



here I noticed some more nests of the "robin," but 

 very few other birds seemed to be interested in nidifica- 

 tion as yet. In a little open spot I came to a decayed 

 maple stump, about twelve feet high, near the top of 

 which a pair of " flickers," or golden-winged wood- 

 peckers, had been very busy excavating a suitable 

 burrow for nesting purposes. The cavity within was 

 large and roomy, being about ten or twelve inches deep, 

 although apparently not yet completed, while the whole 

 ground for yards around was littered with the chips and 

 dust in evidence of the arduous undertaking. 



This habit of building has earned for the bird the 

 rather curious appellation of " high-hole " in some parts 

 of the United States. It is under this name that Whit- 

 man, a true naturalist (as every real poet needs must 

 be), mentions it : — 



" Put in April and May, the iylas croaking in the ponds, 

 Bees, butterflies, the sparrow with its simple notes, 

 Blue-bird and darting swallow, nor forget the high-hole flash- 

 ing his golden wings." 



Near here I visited a nest of the flying-squirrel, 

 which I discovered a few days before in a hollow in a 

 small stump and only four or five feet from the ground ; 

 there were then three young squirrels, blind and naked, 

 and the female in the nest, but I found on re-visiting it 

 that the squirrel had removed her young from the nest, 

 no doubt to a safer hiding-place. 



Passing from here by a slight track through some 

 rather open rocky ground, I startled a nighthawk from 

 the ground close to the path. Like its English cousin, 

 the nightjar, the bird harmonises well with its surround- 

 ings, and also crouches so still that it is never seen 

 until one's close approach rouses it to flight. In 

 general habits, too, in flight and in nidification this 

 bird of the twilight is almost a counterpart of its Euro- 

 pean relative. 



The next morning awoke me with the sounds of 

 spring — the little alien sparrows outside my window 

 quarrelling over the possession of some disputed nest- 



