CONCORD 
1911 
March 20 About three inches of wet, heavy snow fell last 
T— 
storm night, covering the ground very evenly and loading every 
twig of tree and shrub so thick (that) the woods and 
thickets presented a beautiful appearance this morning. 
A male 
Downy Bluebirds were singing and Robins calling near the house 
Woodpecker 
kills a as I was dressing. Two or three Chickadees and the pair 
female 
of Nuthatches visited the suet to get their breakfast 
while we were eating ours. Not long after this, a strange and 
grewsome tragedy was enacted in the lilacs within fifteen 
feet of the windows. James, Gjlbert and I witnessed all 
but its opening act which, unfortunately, escaped our 
notice. 
We were in the dining-room, consulting about 
the day’s work, when we heard the tchick note of the 
Downy Woodpecker repeated almost incessantly and very ra¬ 
pidly just outside. For a moment or more we paid no 
attention to it. But something unusual in its quality and 
its insistence soon led me to look out and this was what 
I saw; 
On the snow, among the outermost stems of the 
lilacs on ©ire 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; 
