-bellied
species, he says: "It rattles like the rest of the tribe on the dead
limbs, and with such violence as to be heard in still weather more than
half a mile off; and listens to hear the insect it has alarmed." He
listens rather to hear the drum of his rival or the brief and coy
response of the female; for there are no insects in these dry limbs.

On one occasion I saw downy at his drum when a female flew quickly
through the tree and alighted a few yards beyond him. He paused
instantly, and kept his place, apparently without moving a muscle. The
female, I took it, had answered his advertisement. She flitted about
from limb to limb (the female may be known by the absence of the crimson
spot on the back of the head), apparently full of business of her own,
and now and then would drum in a shy, tentative manner. The male watched
her a few moments and, convinced perhaps that she meant business, struck
up his liveliest tune, then listened for her response. As it came back
timidly but promptly, he left his perch and sought a nearer acquaintance
with the prudent female. Whether or not a match grew out of this little
flirtation I cannot say.

Our smaller woodpeckers are sometimes accused of injuring the apple and
other fruit trees, but the depredator is probably the larger and rarer
yellow-bellied species. One autumn I caught one of these fellows in
the act of sinking long rows of his little wells in the limb of an
apple-tree. There were series of rings of them, one above another, quite
around the stem, some of them the third of an inch across. They are
evidently made to get at the tender, juicy bark, or cambium layer, next
to the hard wood of the tree. The health and vitality of the branch are
so seriously impaired by them that it often dies.

In the following winter the same bird (probably) tapped a maple-tree in
front of my window in fifty-six places; and when the day was sunny, and
the sap oozed out, he spent most of his time there. He knew the good
sap-days, and was on hand promptly for his tipple; cold and cloudy
days he did not appear. He knew which side of the tree to tap, too, and
avoided the sunless northern exposure. When one series of well-holes
failed to supply him, he would sink another, drilling through the bark
with great ease and quickness. Then, when the day was warm, and the sap
ran freely, he would have a regular sugar-maple debauch, sitting there
by his wells hour after hour, and as fast as they becam