est as to
render it inaccessible.

Other exceptions are the pigeons, hawks, and water-fowls.

But to return. Having a good chance to note the color and markings of
the woodpeckers as they passed in and out at the opening of the nest,
I saw that Audubon had made a mistake in figuring or describing the
female of this species with the red spot upon the head. I have seen a
number of pairs of them, and in no instance have I seen the mother
bird marked with red.

The male was in full plumage, and I reluctantly shot him for a
specimen. Passing by the place again next day, I paused a moment to
note how matters stood. I confess it was not without some compunctions
that I heard the cries of the young birds, and saw the widowed mother,
her cares now doubled, hastening to and fro in the solitary woods. She
would occasionally pause expectantly on the trunk of a tree, and utter
a loud call.

It usually happens when the male of any species is killed during the
breeding season, that the female soon procures another mate. There
are, most likely, always a few unmated birds of both sexes, within a
given range, and through these the broken links may be restored.
Audubon or Wilson, I forgot which, tells a pair of fish-hawks, or
ospreys, that built their nest in an ancient oak. The male was so
zealous in the defence of the young that it actually attacked with
beak and claw a person who attempted to climb into his nest, putting
his face and eyes in great jeopardy. Arming himself with a heavy club,
the climber felled the gallant bird to the ground and killed him. In
the course of a few days, the female had procured another mate. But
naturally enough the step-father showed none of the spirit and pluck
in defence of the brood that had been displayed by the original
parent. When danger was nigh, he was seen afar off, sailing around in
placid unconcern.

It is generally known that when either the wild turkey or domestic
turkey begins to lay, and afterwards to sit and rear the brood, she
secludes herself from the male, who then, very sensibly, herds with
others of his sex, and betakes himself to haunts of his own till male
and female, old and young, meet again on common ground, late in the
fall. But rob the sitting bird of her eggs, or destroy her tender
young, and she immediately sets out in quest of a male, who is no
laggard when he hears her call. The same is true of ducks and other
aquatic fowls. The propagating instinct is strong, and s