Concord, Mass.
1911.
March 20
(No 2)
[March 20, 1911]

A male Downy Woodpecker kills a female

led me to look out and this was what I saw : - On
the snow among the outermost stems of lilacs on our
side of the dense thicket that they form was a [female] Downy
with extended and quivering wings. About her hopped or rather
danced, a handsome [male] showing the red on his occiput
very conspicuously. He kept striking at her head with his
bill and occasionally he held on for a few seconds, when
the two birds fluttered about together and perhaps rolled
over once or twice, closely united. At first I though it
an amatory encounter and I am still almost certain
that the [male] attempted to secure sexual contact with
the [female] once or twice. But if so it could not have 
been his primary or at least sole object. For he
continued to peck her head even when she was
lying almost motionless on the snow. For a time
she seemed to be trying to escape and for fully two