i84 



The habits of this bird are a curious com- 

 pound of his old life in the woods and his 

 ^ new preference for the open fields and farms. 

 ^el/ow Sometimes the nest is in the very heart of 

 ea/enis ^j^g woods, where the bird glides in and out, 

 silent as a crow in nesting time. His feed- 

 ing place meanwhile may be an old pasture 

 half a mile away, where he calls loudly, and 

 frolics about as if he had never a care or 

 a fear in the world. But the nest is now 

 more frequently in a wild orchard, where the 

 bird finds a knot-hole and digs down through 

 the soft wood, making a deep nest with very 

 little trouble. When the knot-hole is not 

 well situated, he finds a decayed Hmb and 

 drills through the outer hard shell, then digs 

 down a foot or more through the soft wood, 

 and makes a nest. In this nest the rain 

 never troubles him, for he very providently 

 drills the entrance on the underside of the 

 Hmb. 



Like many other birds, he has discovered 

 that the farmer is his friend. Occasionally, 

 therefore, he neglects to build a deep nest, 

 simply hollowing out an old knot-hole, and 



