i had not spent many days in the little lover's door-yard before realizing that there was something in the wind. if an inoffensive person fancies sitting in the shade of a sycamore with her horse grazing quietly beside her, who should say her nay? if, at her approach, a—feathered—person steals away to the top of the highest, most distant oak within sight and, silent and motionless, keeps his eye on her till she departs; if, as she innocently glances up at the trees, she discovers a second—feathered—person's head extended cautiously from behind a trunk, its eyes fixed on hers; or if, as she passes along a—sycamore—street, a person comes to a window and cranes his neck to look at her, and instantly leaves the premises; then surely, as the world wags, she is quite justified in having a mind of her own in the matter. still more, when it comes to finding chips under a window—who could do aught but infer that a carpenter lived within? not i. and so it came about that i discovered that one of the apartments in the back of the wren sycamore[66] had been rented by a pair of well-meaning but suspicious california woodpeckers, first cousins of the eastern red-heads.
california woodpecker. (one half natural size.) california woodpecker.
(one half natural size.)
red-headed woodpecker—eastern. (one half natural size.) red-headed woodpecker—eastern.
(one half natural size.)
it is unpleasant to be treated as if you needed detectives on your track. it strains your faith in human nature; the rest of the world must be very wicked if people suspect such extremely good creatures as you are! and then it reflects on the detectives; it shows them so lacking in discernment. nevertheless, "a friend should bear his friend's infirmities," and i was determined to be friends with the woodpeckers. one of them kept me waiting an hour one morning. when i first saw it, it was on its tree trunk, but when it first saw me, it promptly left for parts unknown. i stopped at a respectful distance from its tree—several rods away—and threw myself down on the warm sand in the[67] bed of the dry stream, between high hedges of exquisite lemon-colored mustard. patient waiting is no loss, observers must remember if they would be consoled for their lost hours. in this case i waited till i felt like a lotus-eater who could have stayed on forever. a dove brooded her eggs on a branch of the spreading sycamore whose arms were outstretched protectingly above me; the sun rested full on its broad leaves, and bees droned around the fragrant mustard, whose exquisite golden flowers waved gently against a background of soft blue california sky.
but that was not the last day i had to wait. it was over a month before the birds put any trust in me. the nest hole was excavated before the middle of may; on june 15 i wrote in my note-book, "the woodpecker has gotten so that when i go by she puts her head out of the window, and when i speak to her does not fly away, but cocks her head and looks down at me."[3] that same morning the bird actually entered the nest in my presence. she came back to her sycamore while i was watching the wrens, and flew right up to the mouth of the nest. she was a little nervous. she poked in her bill, drew it back; put in her head, drew that back; then swung her body partly in; but finally the tip of her tail disappeared down the hole.
[68]
the next morning, in riding by, i heard weak voices from the woodpecker mansion. if young were to be fed, i must be on hand. such luxurious observing! riding mountain billy out into the meadow, i dismounted, and settled myself comfortably against a haycock with the bridle over my arm. it was a beautiful quiet morning. the night fog had melted back and the mountains stood out in relief against a sky of pure deep blue. the line of sycamores opposite us were green and still against the blue; the morning sun lighting their white trunks and framework. the songs of birds filled the air, and the straw-colored field dotted with haycocks lay sunning under the quiet sky. in the east we are accustomed to speak of "the peace of evening," but in southern california in spring there is a peculiar interval of warmth and rest, a langorous pause in the growth of the morning, between the disappearance of the night fog and the coming of the cool trade wind, when the southern sun shines full into the little valleys and the peace of the morning is so deep and serene that the labor of the day seems done. nature appears to be slumbering. she is aroused slowly and gently by the soft breaths that come in from the pacific. on this day i watched the awakening. up to this time not a grass blade had stirred, but while i dreamed a brown leaf went whirling to the ground, the stray stalks of oats left from the mowing began[69] to nod, and the sycamore branches commenced to sway. then the breeze swelled stronger, coming cool and fresh from the ocean; the yellow primroses, around which the hummingbirds whirred, bowed on their stately stalks, and i could hear the wind in the moving treetops.
mountain billy grazed near me till it occurred to him that stubble was unsatisfactory, when he betook him to my haycock. though i lectured him upon the rights of property and enforced my sermon with the point of the parasol, he was soon back again, with the amused look of a naughty boy who cannot believe in the severity of his monitor; and later, i regret to state, when i was engrossed with the woodpeckers, a sound of munching arose from behind my back.
the woodpeckers talked and acted very much like their cousins, the red-heads of the east. when they went to the nest they called chuck'-ah as if to wake the young, flying away with the familiar rattling kit-er'r'r'r'. they flew nearly half a mile to their regular feeding ground, and did not come to the nest as often as the wrens when bringing up their brood. perhaps they got more at a time, filling their crops and feeding by regurgitation, as i have seen waxwings do when having a long distance to go for food.
i first heard the voices of the young on june 16; nearly three weeks later, july 6, the birds were still in the nest. on that morning, when i[70] went out to mount billy, i was shocked to find the body of one of the old woodpeckers on the saddle. i thought it had been shot, but found it had been picked up in the prune orchard. that afternoon its mate was brought in from the same place. probably both birds had eaten poisoned raisins left out for the gophers. the dead birds were thrown out under the orange-trees near the house, and not many hours afterward, when i looked out of the window, two turkey vultures were sitting on the ground, one of them with a pathetic little black wing in his bill. the great black birds seemed horrible to me,—ugly, revolting creatures. i went outside to see what they would do, and after craning their long red necks at me and stalking around nervously a few moments they flew off.
now what would become of the small birds imprisoned in the tree trunk, with no one to bring them food, no one to show them how to get out, or, if they were out, to feed them till they had learned how to care for themselves? sad and anxious, i rode down to the sycamore. i rapped on its trunk, calling chuck'-ah as much like the old birds as possible. there was an instant answer from a strong rattling voice and a weak piping one. the weak voice frightened me. if that little bird's life were to be saved, it was time to be about it. the ranchman's son was pruning the vineyard, and i rode over to get him to come and see how we could rescue the little prisoners.[71]
on our way to the tree we came on a gopher snake four feet long. it was so near the color of the soil that i would have passed it by, but the boy discovered it. the creature lay so still he thought it was dead; but as we stood looking, it puffed itself up with a big breath, darted out its tongue, and began to move off. i watched to see how it made the straight track we so often saw in the dust of the roads. it bent its neck into a scallop for a purchase, while its tapering tail made an s, to furnish slack; and then it pulled the main length of its body along straight. it crawled noiselessly right to the foot of the woodpecker tree, but was only hunting for a hole to hide in. it got part way down one hole, found that it was too small, and had to come backing out again. it followed the sand bed, taking my regular beat, from tree to tree! to be sure, gopher snakes are harmless, but they are suggestive, and you would rather their ways were not your ways.
although the little prisoners welcomed us as rescuers should be welcomed, they did it by mistake. they thought we were their parents. at the first blow of the axe their voices hushed, and not a sound came from them again. it seemed as if we never should get the birds out.
it looked easy enough, but it wasn't. the nest was about twelve feet above the ground. the sycamore was so big the boy could not reach around it, and so smooth and slippery he could[72] not get up it, though he had always been a good climber. he clambered up a drooping branch on the back of the tree,—the nest was in front,—but could not swing himself around when he got up. then he tried the hollow burned at the foot of the tree. the charred wood crumbled beneath his feet, but at last, by stretching up and clinging to a knothole, he managed to reach the nest.
as his fingers went down the hole, the young birds grabbed them, probably mistaking them for their parents' bills. "their throats seem hot," the boy exclaimed; "poor hungry little things!" his fingers would go through the nest hole, but not his knuckles, and the knothole where he steadied himself was too slippery to stand on while he enlarged the hole. it was getting late, and as he had his chores to do before dark i suggested that we feed the birds and leave them in the tree till morning; but the rescuer exclaimed resolutely, "we'll get them out to-night!" and hurried off to the ranch-house for a step-ladder and axe.
the ladder did not reach up to the first knothole, four or five feet below the nest; but the boy cut a notch in the top of the knot and stood in it, practically on one foot, and held on to a small branch with his right hand—the first limb he trusted to broke off as he caught it—while with the left hand he hacked away at the nest hole. it was a ticklish position and genuine work, for the wood was hard and the hatchet dull.[73]
i stood below holding the carving-knife,—we hadn't many tools on the ranch,—and as the boy worked he entertained me with an account of an accident that happened years before, when his brother had chopped off a branch and the axe head had glanced off, striking the head of the boy who was watching below. i stood from under as he finished his story, and inquired with interest if he were sure his axe head was tight! before the lad had made much impression on the hard sycamore, he got so tired and looked so white around the mouth that i insisted on his getting down to rest, and tried to divert him by calling his attention to the sunset and the voices of the quail calling from the vineyard. when he went up again i handed him the carving-knife to slice off the thinner wood on the edge of the nest hole, warning him not to cut off the heads of the young birds.
at last the hole was big enough, and, sticking the hatchet and knife into the bark, the lad threw one arm around the trunk to hold on while he thrust his hand down into the nest. "my, what a deep hole!" he exclaimed. "i don't know as i can reach them now. they've gone to the bottom, they're so afraid." nearly a foot down he had to squeeze, but at last got hold of one bird and brought it out. "drop him down," i cried, "i'll catch him," and held up my hands. the little bird came fluttering through the air. the second bird clung frightened to the boy's coat, but[74] he loosened its claws and dropped it down to me. what would the poor old mother woodpecker have thought had she seen these first flights of her nestlings!
i hurried the little scared brothers under my jacket, my best substitute for a hollow tree, and called chuck'-ah to them in the most woodpecker-like tones i could muster. then the boy shouldered the ladder, and i took the carving-knife, and we trudged home triumphant; we had rescued the little prisoners from the tower!
when we had taken them into the house the woodpeckers called out, and the cats looked up so savagely that i asked the boy to take the birds home to his sister to keep till they were able to care for themselves. on examining them i understood what the difference in their voices had meant. one of them poked his head out of the opening in my jacket where he was riding, while the other kept hidden away in the dark; and when they were put into my cap for the boy to carry home, the one with the weak voice disclosed a whitish bill—a bad sign with a bird—and its feeble head bent under it so weakly that i was afraid it would die.
three days later, when i went up to the lad's house, it was to be greeted by loud cries from the little birds. though they were in a box with a towel over it, they heard all that was going on. their voices were as sharp as their ears, and they[75] screamed at me so imperatively that i hurried out to the kitchen and rummaged through the cupboards till i found some food for them. they opened their bills and gulped it down as if starving, although their guardian told me afterwards that she had fed them two or three hours before.
when held up where the air could blow on them, they grew excited; and one of them flew down to the floor and hid away in a dark closet, sitting there as contentedly as if it reminded him of his tree trunk home.
i took the two brothers out into the sitting-room and kept them on my lap for some time, watching their interesting ways. the weak one i dubbed jacob, which is the name the people of the valley had given the woodpeckers from the sound of their cries; the stronger bird i called bairdi, as 'short' for melanerpes formicivorus bairdi—the name the ornithologists had given them.
jacob and bairdi each had ways of his own. when offered a palm, bairdi, who was quite like 'folks,' was content to sit in it; but jacob hung with his claws clasping a little finger as a true woodpecker should; he took the same pose when he sat for his picture. bairdi often perched in my hand, with his bill pointing to the ceiling, probably from his old habit of looking up at the door of his nest. sometimes when bairdi sat in my hand, jacob would swing himself up from my[76] little finger, coming bill to bill with his brother, when the small bird would open his mouth as he used to for his mother to feed him. poor little orphans, they could not get used to their changed conditions!
they did other droll things just as their fathers had done before them. they used to screw their heads around owl fashion, a very convenient thing for wild birds who cling to tree trunks and yet need to know what is going on behind their backs. once, on hearing a sudden noise, one of them ducked low and drew his head in between his shoulders in such a comical way we all laughed at him.
i often went up to the ranch to visit them. we would take them out under a big spreading oak beside the house, where the little girl's mother sat with her sewing, and then watch the birds as we talked. when we put them on the tree trunk, at first they did not know what to do, but soon they scrambled up on the branches so fast their guardian had to climb up after them for fear they would get away. poor little jacob climbed as if afraid of falling off, taking short hops up the side of the tree, bending his stiff tail at a sharp angle under him to brace himself against the bark. bairdi, his strong brother, was less nervous, and found courage to catch ants on the bark. jacob did a pretty thing one day. when put on the oak, he crept into a crack of the bark and lay[77] there fluffed up against its sides with the sun slanting across, lighting up his pretty red cap. he looked so contented and happy it was a pleasure to watch him. another time he started to climb up on top of my head and, i dare say, was surprised and disappointed when what he had taken for a tree trunk came to an untimely end. when we put the brothers on the grass, one of them went over the ground with long hops, while the other hid under the rocking-chair. one bird seemed possessed to sit on the white apron worn by the little girl's mother, flying over to it from my lap, again and again.
the woodpeckers had brought from the nest a liking for dark, protected places. bairdi twice clambered up my hair and hung close under the brim of my black straw hat. another time he climbed up my dress to my black tie and, fastening his claws in the silk, clung with his head in the dark folds as if he liked the shade. i covered the pretty pet with my hand and he seemed to enjoy it. when i first looked down at him his eyes were open, though he kept very still; but soon his head dropped on my breast and he went fast asleep, and would have had a good nap if jacob had not called and waked him up.
jacob improved so much after the first few days—and some doses of red pepper—that we had to look twice to tell him from his sturdy brother. he certainly ate enough to make him grow.[78] the birds liked best to be fed with a spoon; probably it seemed more like a bill. after a little, they learned to peck at their food, a sign i hailed eagerly as indicative of future self-support; for with appetites of day laborers and no one to supply their wants, they would have suffered sorely, poor little orphans! sometimes, when they had satisfied their first hunger, they would shake the bread from their bills as if they didn't like it and wanted food they were used to.
jacob and bairdi visiting the old nest tree jacob and bairdi visiting the old nest tree
when one got hungry he would call out, and then his brother would begin to shout. the little tots gave a crooning gentle note when caressed, and a soft cry when they snuggled down in our hands or cuddled up to us as they had done under their mother's wing. their call for food was a sibilant chirr, and they gave it much oftener than any of the grown-up woodpecker notes. but they also said chuck'-ah and rattled like the old birds.
i was glad there were two of them so they would not be so lonely. if separated they showed their interest in each other. if bairdi called, jacob would keep still and listen attentively, raising his topknot till every microscopic red feather stood up like a bristle, when he would answer bairdi in a loud manly voice.
it was amusing to see the small birds try to plume themselves. sometimes they would take a sudden start to make their toilettes, and both work[79] away vigorously upon their plumes. it was comical to see them try to find their oil glands. had the old birds taught them how to oil their feathers while they were still in the nest? they were thickly feathered, but when they reached back to their tails the pink skin showed between their spines and shoulders, giving a good idea of the way birds' feathers grow only in tracts.
when the little princes were about a month old, i arranged with a neighboring photographer to have them sit for their picture. he drove over to the sycamore, and the lad who had rescued the prisoners took them down to keep their appointment. one of them tried to tuck its head up the boy's sleeve, being attracted by dark holes. while we were waiting for the photographer, the boy put jacob in a hollow of the tree, where he began pecking as if he liked it. he worked away till he squeezed himself into a small pocket, and then, with his feathers ruffled up, sat there, the picture of content. indeed, the little fellow looked more at home than i had ever seen him anywhere. the rescuer was itching to put the little princes back in their hole, to see what they would do, but i wouldn't listen to it, being thankful to have gotten them out once.
when bairdi was on the bark and jacob was put below him, he turned his head, raised his red cap, and looked down at his brother in a very winning way.[80]
soon the photographer came, and asked, "are these the little chaps that try to swallow your fingers?" we were afraid they would not sit still enough to get good likenesses, but we had taken the precaution to give them a hearty breakfast just before starting, and they were too sleepy to move much. in the picture, jacob is clinging to the boy's hand in his favorite way, and bairdi is on the tree trunk.
mountain billy pricked up his ears when he discovered the woodpeckers down at the sycamore, but he often saw them up at the ranch and took me to make a farewell call on them before i left for the east. we found the birds perched on the tobacco-tree in front of the ranch-house, with a tall step-ladder beside it so the little girl could take them in at night. their cup of bread and milk stood on the ladder, and when i called them they came over to be fed. they were both so strong and well that they would soon be able to care for themselves, as their fathers had done before them. and when they were ready to fly, they might have help; for an old woodpecker of their family—possibly an unknown uncle—had been seen watching them from the top of a neighboring oak, and may have been just waiting to adopt the little orphans. in any case, however they were to start out in the world, it was a great satisfaction to have rescued them from their prison tower.