Here the holes were drilled into the rain-pipes. 

 I did not see the insane bird this time, but a 

 naturalist friend who did reported it a male 

 that had gone mad with love. 



The bird came back early in the spring, and 

 announced himself by beating a thunderous 

 tattoo on a galvanized-iron chimney. The per- 

 sons in the rooms below jumped as if the roof 

 were falling. The passers-by on the street 

 halted to gaze around in wonder. There was 

 nothing to be seen. Again the rattling, ringing 

 roll, and up out of ^he chimney popped the 

 flicker, in an ecstasy over his new drum— his 

 "Spanish guitar," for he was certainly calling a 

 mate, though not another flicker had yet re- 

 turned. 



Then across the way, on the top of a neighbor- 

 ing house, he spied another, larger drum, and gal- 

 loped over there. It was a big ventilator. He 

 hit it, and it boomed. Catching his toes around 

 an iron hoop that circled it, he began to beat av 

 roll to wake the very dead. 



The mystery is that his bill did not fly into 

 splinters. But it did not. The sound, however, 

 went to his head. He got stark mad with the 

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