Cambridge, Mass.
1899.
February.
(No. 10).
15th I heard a Woodpecker which I think was a Downy drum
softly a few times. On the 24th Walter heard one drum a
dozen times or more in an elm on the Greenleaf estate
just below Mason Street. He saw the bird but it was so
high up that he could not make sure of the sex. The
drumming of this species is probably the very earliest
spring sound that one can hear in the region about Cam-
bridge.
  We have repeatedly observed this winter that the
Downy always keeps his bill tightly closed when pecking
at suet whereas the Chickadees invariably strike it with
half opened bills.
9. Colaptes auratus. The Flickers have been almost unceasing
in their attentions to the Parkman's apple tree but they
do not seem to have perceptibly diminished its bountiful
supply of fruit. This is perhaps not to be wondered at
since this little tree contained, last November, accord-
ing to a computation made by Walter at least 45,000 ap-
ples. These apples are scarce larger than currants and
the Flickers swallow them whole. A male and a female
or two males and a female have usually appeared in com-
pany but once we saw two males together and on another
occasion a male and two females. Hence there must have