Concord, Mass.
1911.
April 25
[April 25, 1911]

  Clear & warm with cool east wind.

Downy Woodpecker

  The [male] Downy Woodpecker who murdered a female presumably
 his mate on March 20th last has been frequenting the trees
about the farm house ever since coming regularly several times
each day to feed on suet and drumming persistently every
sunny forenoon evidently in the hope of thereby securing
another wife. But no second female has appeared thus far.
The [male] nevertheless, began work on a new nest this morning
in the underside of the dead branch of the elm at the
east end of the wood shed. He worked steadily all the 
forenoon and by noon he had carried the hole in so far that
only the hinder half of his body showed as he worked. There
were seven other holes, each one of which has been used by the
pair in former years, in this same branch, always with success
in rearing their broods. Each hole has been enlarged the
following autumn to serve for a winter roosting place.