48 BIRD PARADISE 



study window, I could see the parties, rushing 

 hither and thither, calling out to each other, and 

 by turns examining the old maple. How easily 

 they balanced along in their peculiar way, com- 

 ing down from the Burritt grove. Then such 

 scurrying through the trees, around and up the 

 trunks, in and out of the old nesting place — hour 

 after hour of it. What a flicker day it was and 

 how the birds seemed to enjoy every moment. 

 Toward night I saw them rushing away to the 

 grove, apparently as far from a decision as to 

 whom should occupy the old homestead as when 

 they first took the matter up in the morning. 

 Judging from what has occurred in previous 

 years, they will require four or five more days of 

 conference before the final decision is reached. 



Birds, like human beings, have curious freaks. 

 A large gray woodpecker spent the entire day re- 

 cently drumming on one of the maple trees 

 directly in front of my study window. Just what 

 he meant by it I could not learn. The tree is 

 perfectly sound, to all appearance, and the fellow 

 did not seem to secure anything in the way of 

 food. Occasionally he would pound away in a 

 sort of ecstasy, as though the work itself was the 



