6 if The British Naturalist. 



tion, at any other season. We have watched the bird during 

 the operation, at the distance only of a few yards ; but are 

 still at a loss to understand exactly how the sound is pro- 

 duced : the strokes of the bird's bill against the tree, rapid 

 though they be, falling far short, as it appeared to us, of the 

 almost incredible celerity with which the sounds were re- 

 peated. Perhaps we do not make ourselves understood : 

 our meaning is, that if the stroke of the beak be supposed to 

 be repeated, say four or five hundred times in a minute, the 

 sound produced appears to require that it should have 

 been repeated twice or three times as often in the same space : 

 in a word, the noise which falls upon the ear, seems far more 

 rapid than the tapping of the beak which is visible to the 

 eye. May not the horn-tipped tongue of the bird, as well as 

 its bill, come at the same time in sonorous contact with the 

 wood, so as to produce at every stroke a double sound ? We 

 throw out this hint merely in order to invite enquiry on this 

 curious subject ; and for the same reason, need make no 

 apology for transcribing our author's remarks, which are 

 just, and highly descriptive of the phenomenon in question. 



" It is not a little singular that the love-note of the woodpecker should 

 not be a voice, like that of most other birds, but a tapping upon the trunk 

 of a tree. The muscles of the neck of the bird are so constructed, that it 

 can repeat the strokes of its bill with a celerity of which it is difficult to 

 form a notion. They absolutely make one running jar, so that it is impos- 

 sible to count them. We have often tried with a stop-watch, but could 

 never ascertain the number for a minute, although we are certain that 

 it must be many hundreds ; and as, from the sound, the space passed over 

 must be at least 3 inches backwards and as much forwards, at every stroke, 

 which, in the rude estimate that we were able to form ( and it was a very 

 rude one), would make the motion of its beak, one of the most rapid of 

 animal motions, nearly 200 miles in the hour, yet the bird will continue 

 tapping away for some considerable time." (p. 293.) 



Such, indeed, is the rapidity of the motion, that, were its 

 powers of wing in proportion to those of its neck, the bird 

 might almost vie with Puck, and 



" put a girdle round about the earth 



In forty minutes." Midsummer Nighfs Dream. 



There are some unlucky animals in the creation, which, 

 having once been most unjustly robbed of their good name 

 and character, are for ever after persecuted by man with un- 

 relenting rigour, while, in fact, they do him good and faith- 

 ful service. The hedgehog, we believe, and the toad might 

 be adduced as instances in point. But the race which we 

 had more especially in our eye, and which drew the remark, 

 from us, is that of those amusing little birds the titmice. A 

 price is frequendy set upon their heads, even in these en- 

 lightened days ; and incredible sums are sometimes expended 



