1877. | The Golden- Winged Woodpecker. 749 © 
heard only during the mating season. Very early a morning or 
two later, I found them upon a tree, quite near together. The 
male was very demonstrative in his love-making. At short in- 
tervals, he would droop his wings slightly, spread his tail, nod 
or bow his head towards the female, first to one side and then to — 
the other, all the while uttering his low love carol. She recip- 
rocated his bows, bowing every time he did, but uttering no 
note that I could detect. 
“ The affectionate anxiety of this feathered Adonis to appear 
well in the eyes of his mistress seemed most ludicrous to the be- 
holder, while at the same time there was such an air of loving 
tenderness and devotion in both his voice and actions that the 
sympathy of the spectator was at once enlisted for the success 
and happiness of so gallant though so awkward a wooer. 
‘This courtship continued for about one week, during which — 
time the happy pair had fixed upon the site for their future 
home. This they located upon the dead limb of an elm, sixty 
feet from the ground. The tree stood at the side of a much- 
traveled road and near some shops. Here their troubles began. 
* Again, the truth of the old adage ‘that the course of true 
love never runs smooth’ was vindicated. For in a tree near that 
chosen for their future nest resided a colony of English sparrows, 
whose pugnacity is well known. The paucity of leaves on the 
trees exposed the handsomely colored woodpeckers to the dan- 
ger of discovery by their fiery little enemies, the moment they 
alighted upon their chosen limb. No sooner did our woodpeckers 
begin the operation of outlining the hole for the entrance to their 
domicile than they were furiously assailed on all sides by the en- 
raged sparrows. The woodpeckers would awkwardly dodge their 
blows and get on the opposite side of the limb, but the sparrows 
returned again and again to the attack, until the woodpeckers 
would seek safety in flight. Still the devoted pair did not despair. 
Time after time would they return and work a little while until 
discovered by their sharp-eyed enemies, when they would again 
take refuge in flight. At the end of a fortnight the leaves had 
come out sufficiently to screen them from the view of the spar- 
rows, but as people and teams were constantly passing the tree, 
their shyness kept them retreating almost every few minutes. 
This morning I find one of them busy chiseling away at the hole.” 
1 So it seems that the flicker is to be added to the long list of birds which these 
wretched interlopers attack and harass. Dr. Thomas M. Brewer has so long per- 
sisted in his denial of the facts, in the face of testimony no less explicit, that it is a 
question with me whether he will not pooh-pooh this away too.— ELLIOTT Cougs. 
