BIRD-NESTING. 
67 
Woodpecker. I cannot forget the feelings with which I 
first saw it digging its hole, not in bough or trunk, 
but in the great, brown nests of the vicious little 
tree-ant. How 
it gets rid of the 
occupants, or 
whether it makes 
terms with them, I 
cannot say. It 
keeps its secret to 
itself and lives, I 
should think, in 
perfect security, for 
no enemy is likely 
to come prying 
RED WOODPECKER. 
about those nests. 
Ruminating on these things and wandering on, I noticed 
a great dark bird sailing over a wooded hillside, and from 
the blackness of its ample wings I knew it must be the 
Black Eagle. A rare bird it is, and noble to look at ; but 
how debased ! By lineage it is an eagle and by trade a 
poacher. Dr. Jerdon says : “ It lives almost exclusively, I 
believe, by robbing birds’ nests, devouring both the eggs 
F 2 
