WAYS OF NATURE 



ber day, I saw Downy trying to get possession of a 

 hole not his own. I chanced to be passing under 

 a maple, when white chips upon the ground again 

 caused me to scrutinize the branches overhead. Just 

 then I saw Downy come to the tree, and, hopping 

 around on the under side of a large dry limb, begin 

 to make passes at something with his beak. Pre- 

 sently I made out a round hole there, with some- 

 thing in it returning Downy's thrusts. The sparring 

 continued some moments. Downy would hop away 

 a few feet, then return to the attack, each time to be 

 met by the occupant of the hole. I suspected an 

 English sparrow had taken possession of Downy's 

 cell in his absence during the day, but I was wrong. 

 Downy flew to another branch, and I tossed up a 

 stone against the one that contained the hole, when, 

 with a sharp, steely note, out came a hairy wood- 

 pecker and alighted on a near-by branch. Downy, 

 then, had the " cheek " to try to turn his large rival 

 out of doors — and it was Hairy's cell, too ; one could 

 see that by the size of the entrance. Thus loosely 

 does the rule of meum and tuu7n obtain in the 

 woods. There is no moral code in nature. Might 

 reads right. Man in communities has evolved ethi- 

 cal standards of conduct, but nations, in their deal- 

 ings with one another, are still largely in a state of 

 savage nature, and seek to establish the right, as 

 dogs do, by the appeal to battle. 



One season a wood duck laid her eggs in a cavity 

 21 



