PHASES OP BIRD LIFE. 197 



One day in spring I was witness to a curious inci- 

 dent. A red-headed woodpecker had been flying 

 several times in and out of a hole in a tree where 

 he (or she) had a nest. At length, when he re- 

 mained within the cavity for some minutes, I stepped 

 to the tree and rapped on the trunk with my cane. 

 The bird bolted like a small cannon-ball from the 

 orifice, wheeled around the tree with a swiftness 

 that the eye could scarcely follow, and then dashed 

 up the lane to an orchard a short distance away. 

 But he had only leaped out of the frying-pan into 

 the fire. In the orchard he had unconsciously got 

 too near a king-bird's nest. The king-bird swooped 

 toward him, and alighted on his back. The next 

 moment the two birds, the king-bird on the wood- 

 pecker's back, went racing across the meadow like 

 a streak of zigzag lightning, making a clatter that 

 frightened every echo from its hiding-place. That 

 gamy flycatcher actually clung to the woodpecker's 

 back until he reached the other end of the meadow. 

 I cannot be sure, but he seemed to be holding to 

 the woodpecker's dorsal feathers with his bill. 

 Then, bantam fellow that he was, he dashed back 

 to the orchard with a loud chippering of exultation. 

 " Ah, ha ! " he flung across to the blushing wood- 

 pecker ; " stay away the next time, if you don't 

 fancy being converted into a beast of burden ! " 



A large part of a bird's toil, after there are chil- 

 dren in the nest, consists in providing victuals for 

 them. For this purpose the whole country around 

 must be scoured, and sometimes long journeys must 



