FLICKER 199 



keeping them steadily open for a minute or more, on 

 noise of my approach. 



Aug. 10, 1854. That is a peculiar and distinct hol- 

 low sound made by the pigeon woodpecker's wings, as 

 it flies past near you. 



April 23, 1855. Saw two pigeon woodpeckers ap- 

 proach and, I think, put their bills together and utter 

 that o-week, o-week. 



April 14, 1856. Hear the flicker's cackle on the old 

 aspen, and his tapping sounds afar over the water. 

 Their tapping resounds thus far, with this peculiar 

 ring and distinctness, because it is a hollow tree they 

 select to play on, as a drum or tambour. It is a hollow 

 sound which rings distinct to a great distance, espe- 

 cially ov^r water. 



April 22, 1856. Going through Hubbard's root-fence 

 field, see a pigeon woodpecker on a fence-post. He 

 shows his lighter back between his wings cassock-like 

 and like the smaller woodpeckers. Joins his mate on a 

 tree and utters the wooing note o-week o-week, etc. 



April 27, 1856. The tapping of a woodpecker is made 

 a more remarkable and emphatic sound by the hollow- 

 ness of the trunk, the expanse of water which conducts 

 the sound, and the morning hour at which I commonly 

 hear it. I think that the pigeon woodpeckers must be 

 building, they frequent the old aspen now so much. 



April 29, 1856. A pigeon woodpecker alights on a 

 dead cedar top near me. Its cackle, thus near, sounds 

 like eh eh eh eh eh, etc., rapidly and emphatically re- 

 peated. 



June 10, 1856. In a hollow apple tree, hole eighteen 



