Newton, Mass.
1901.
June 27
(No 6)
  In the afternoon Walter Deane and I went to
Newton by electric cars to see the nest of the Red-
headed Woodpecker. I learned of it first through Purdie
and later from Faxon, Hoffman, Maynard and the
Misses Kendall all of whom have visited it this year.
According to reports this is the second season that the
birds have bred in the same tree, a dead red maple
from which all the branches and most of the bark 
have fallen off. This tree or rather stub stands in
a most conspicuous situation by the side of a new
and still unfinished street but within fifteen or
twenty yards of an open grove of oaks, maples and
chestnuts which shade a rounded knoll. Immediately
about the knoll lie open fields and stretches of well-
drained meadow land but there are other and more
extensive woods of oak and chestnut not far off.
Indeed much of the surrounding region, which is hilly
and broken in character, is still covered with forest
trees of at least sixty or seventy years growth, but the
locality is scarce half-a-mile from the center of
Newtonville and only a few minutes walk beyond as
thickly settled portions of its suburbs while several new
streets and a few homes have been built in the
immediate neighborhood of the spot which the Woodpecker's
have chosen as their summer house. There is also a 
small park - Cabot Park - in process of construction
within about 200 yards of the place.
  We spent nearly an hour watching the stub sitting on
a bank under the shade of some willows on the
opposite side of the road about thirty yards from
the tree. We had seen one of the birds when we first
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