WOODPECKERS 201 



near the other, and the latter hops away a few feet, and 

 so they accompany one another a long distance, utter- 

 ing sometimes a faint or short a-woeek. 



March 23, 1859. The loud peop (?) of a pigeon 

 woodpecker is heard . . . and anon the prolonged loud 

 and shrill cackle, calling the thin-wooded hillsides and 

 pastures to life. It is like the note of an alarm-clock 

 set last fall so as to wake Nature up at exactly this 

 date. Up up up up up up up up up ! What a rustling 

 it seems to make among the dry leaves ! 



May 4, 1860. As I stood there I heard a thumping 

 sound, which I referred to Peter's, three quarters of a 

 mile off over the meadow, but it was a pigeon wood- 

 pecker excavating its nest within a maple within a rod 

 of me. Though I had just landed and made a noise 

 with my boat, he was too busy to hear me, but now he 

 hears my tread, and I see him put out his head and then 

 withdraw it warily and keep still, while I stay there. 



[See also under General and Miscellaneous, p. 426.] 



WOODPECKERS (SPECIES UNNAMED) 



Jan. 26, 1852. The woodpeckers work in Emerson's 

 wood on the Cliff-top, the trees being partly killed by 

 the top, and the grubs having hatched under the bark. 

 The woodpeckers have stripped a whole side of some 

 trees, and in a sound red oak they have dug out a mor- 

 tise-hole with squarish shoulders, as if with a chisel. I 

 have often seen these holes. 



March 22, 1853. The tapping of the woodpecker, 

 rat-tat-tat, knocking at the door of some sluggish grub 

 to tell him that the spring has arrived, and his fate, 



