Many of the larger sycamores have cavities and these are inhabited by various animals. A large sycamore in a ravine below a pond had a cavity in its base within which a raccoon reared its litter of young one summer. At other times this same cavity was inhabited by woodrats and by fox squirrels. Seemingly this cavity was the habitat of a certain chigger which was found on both the squirrels and the woodrat. Red-bellied woodpeckers excavated a cavity high on this same tree trunk, in which they reared their brood. Several large sycamores died as a result of the cumulative effect of drought in the summers of 1952, 1953 and 1954, but many others survived. #Prunus americana.#--Wild plum is a small tree, usually not more than three inches in trunk diameter, nor more than twelve feet high. It tends to grow in dense thickets which are spotty in distribution. Several of these thickets are in edges of former pastures at the woodland edge. Other extensive thickets are in the following situations: along hilltop rock ledges and encroaching into adjacent prairie on upper south-facing slope maintained as bluestem prairie by mowing and burning, until 1934; along a ravine in formerly cultivated hilltop fields; along tops of steep creek banks at edge of old corn field. In a few situations within the woodland there are dead and dying thickets of wild plum, shaded out by the closing in of the tree canopy, as fast-growing trees such as elm, honey locust, and cherry sprang up in former clearings. The woodrat lived in several plum thickets that provided the type of shelter from predators that it requires. The bark, fruit and foliage are used as food. In autumn the plums sometimes are the chief food of the opossum. Plum thickets provide the preferred habitat for the Bell vireo (_Vireo bellii_). The white-eyed vireo, field sparrow, tree sparrow, Harris sparrow, and white-throated sparrow (_Zonotrichia albicollis_) also frequently use these thickets. #Prunus serotina.#--Isolated trees of black cherry six to fifteen inches in trunk diameter, have been noted on various parts of the Reservation at widely scattered points. On a flat hilltop at the southeastern corner of the Reservation there are many large trees of black cherry, which make up a major portion of the stand, and trunks of some are as much as 21 inches in diameter. Other trees in the vicinity are mostly elms and honey locusts, and seemingly the area was more open or perhaps entirely treeless in the recent past. The presence of black cherry in forest often can be interpreted as indicating more open conditions at the time the seedling became established. Black cherry prefers a rich soil and an open habitat; hence it is generally not common in woodlands of northeastern Kansas.