I would rap and find nobody at home.
Was he out on a lark, I said, the spring fever working in his blood?
After a time his drumming grew less frequent, and finally, in the
middle of April, ceased entirely. Had some accident befallen him,
or had he wandered away to fresh fields, following some siren of his
species? Probably the latter. Another bird that I had under
observation also left his winter-quarters in the spring. This, then,
appears to be the usual custom. The wrens and the nut-hatches and
chickadees succeed to these abandoned cavities, and often have amusing
disputes over them. The nut-hatches frequently pass the night in them,
and the wrens and chickadees nest in them. I have further observed
that in excavating a cavity for a nest the downy woodpecker makes the
entrance smaller than when he is excavating his winter-quarters.
This is doubtless for the greater safety of the young birds.
The next fall, the downy excavated another limb in the old apple-tree,
but had not got his retreat quite finished, when the large hairy
woodpecker appeared upon the scene.
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