4 Bird Portraits 



All the woodpeckers nest in holes, which they chisel out of 

 decayed or even live wood. A circular entrance leads to a vertical 

 passage, and this to a wide chamber some distance below. No lining 

 of moss or feathers is put in; the pure white, nearly round eggs 

 are laid directly on the chips at the bottom of the cavity, and the 

 young birds after a few days hang by their claws to the side of 

 the hole. Young Flickers, like young Humming-birds, are fed by 

 their parents with a liquid food, which is pumped into their wide- 

 opened mouths, the parent's bill being thrust far into the young one's. 



The Flicker is one of the few birds that frequently return to 

 the old nest. Most birds, contrary to the common notion, instead 

 of refurnishing the weather-beaten and insecure structure into which 

 their last year's home has been converted by snow, rain, and wind, 

 prefer to build a new one. The material is everywhere at hand, and 

 time is not so precious before the young are hatched. The Flicker, 

 however, having built in a stout limb, can safely return for several 

 seasons to the same cavity, or, if this becomes insecure, can cut 

 another in the same trunk. Branches are often seen where three or 

 four round openings show the tenements of several generations of 

 these noisy birds. South of Massachusetts, Flickers generally spend 

 the whole year in one spot, and in winter live largely on berries; a 

 favorite food at this season is the berry of the poison ivy. In the 

 fall, the rum cherry becomes a resort for all fruit-loving species. 



The Flicker, though not known to raise a second brood, has a 

 second period of song, so that we hear again in June the shout, or 

 mating call, of the early spring days. Besides this high-pitched 

 wick, wick, wick, the Flicker utters, when startled, a curious note 

 like worroo; a sharp ti'ou is the call to its kind, and the syllables 

 yucker, yucker, often accompanied by ludicrous bowing with wings 

 and tail outspread, are used to show affection. 



