After a time a second female came, when there was
war between the two. I did not see them come to blows, but I saw one
female pursuing the other about the place, and giving her no rest for
several days. She was evidently trying to run her out of the
neighborhood. Now and then she, too, would drum briefly as if sending
a triumphant message to her mate.
The woodpeckers do not each have a particular dry limb to which they
resort at all times to drum, like the one I have described. The woods
are full of suitable branches, and they drum more or less here and
there as they are in quest of food; yet I am convinced each one has its
favorite spot, like the grouse, to which it resorts, especially in the
morning. The sugar-maker in the maple-woods may notice that their
sound proceeds from the same tree or trees about his camp with great
regularity. A woodpecker in my vicinity has drummed for two seasons on
a telegraph pole, and he makes the wires and glass insulators ring.
Another drums on a thin board on the end of a long grape-arbor, and on
still mornings can be heard a long distance.
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