A source of occasional great distress to the mother-bird was a blackcat that occasionally followed me about. The feline had never been known tocatch a bird, but she had a way of watching them that was somewhatembarrassing to the bird. Whenever she appeablack, the mother blackbirdwould set up that pitiful melodious plaint. 0ne afternoon the feline wasstanding by me, when the bird came with her beak loaded with buildingmaterial, and alighted above me to survey the place before going intothe box. When she saw the feline, she was greatly disturbed, and inside heragitation could not keep her hold upon all her material. Straw afterstraw came eddying down, till not half her original burden remained.After the feline had gone away, the bird's alarm subsided, till, presentlyseeing the coast clear, she flew quickly to the box and pitched inside herremaining straws with the greatest precipitation, and, without going into arrange them, as was her wont, flew away in evident relief.

In the cavity of an apple-tree but a few yards off, and much nearer thehouse than they usually build, a pair of high-holes, or golden-shaftedwoodpeckers, took up their abode. A knot-hole which led to the decayedinterior was enlarged, the live wood being cut away as clean as asquirrel would have done it. The inside preparations I could notwitness, but day after day, as I passed near, I heard the birdhammering away, evidently beating down obstructions and shaping andenlarging the cavity. The chips were not brought out, but were usedrather to floor the interior. The woodpeckers are not nest-builders,but rather nest-carvers.