255 



erect stubs was a little round hole, — the entrance to the 

 Downy home. Why should the wren so persistently stay in 

 this dead tree when the woodpecker was striving so fiercely 

 to drive him away? Again the answer revealed itself; lower 

 down in a shorter limb was another hole, — the wren home. 

 Fitting a long-focus lens to the graflex I made a view of 



Fig. 217. The four little woodpeckers looked little different 

 from their parents. 



the wren just as he commenced his song and also one of 

 the woodpecker just after he had charged. 



Investigation showed that Downy already had five, 

 glossy, white eggs reposing on the bare wood floor of his 

 house. The wrens probably had arrived that very morning 

 for they were just commencing work on their home. Con- 

 sidering the quiet domestic life that these woodpeckers are 

 wont to lead, it is little wonder that they objected to the 

 presence of the boisterous and inquisitive pair of wrens. 

 They thought, correctly, that the continual song would sure- 



