WOODPECKERS AND THEIR WAYS. 



341 



that in some parts of the country they have learned the trick of 

 flattening themselves as traps on top of ant hills with extended 

 tongue which the ants seize upon as something eatable and are 

 drawn in and devoured by the dozen. 



J^Tow, it would hardly be safe for a woodpecker of almost any 

 other species with black-and-white plumage to follow any such accu- 

 pation, but the flicker when at rest only shows a subdued brown 

 banded with black, tiger fashion, in a way that might jDossibly suggest 

 the shadows of grass stems on dry turf or the fallen branch of a tree, 

 the general effect being not unlike that of the plumage of the 

 meadow lark in a similar position. Many of the concealed feathers, 

 however, exhibit the brilliant black-and-white pattern characteristic 

 of the tribe, and when the bird takes flight, as if aware that con- 

 cealment was no longer possible, he flashes out the full glory of his 

 wings and tail, that, together with the patch of white on his back, 

 hidden until now by his folded wings, make him conspicuous as long 

 as he is in sight. The scarlet of his crest, although bright enough, 

 would hardly attract attention at any distance. 



Now, in Kansas and westward the flickers have wings and tail 

 lined with red instead of yellow, and where the two species come to- 

 gether it is said to be not uncommon to find specimens with one wing 

 lined with red and the other with gold, and the tail feathers divided 

 in a corresponding manner. 



The green woodpecker of England, as might be expected in a 

 climate where the leaves and grass are not burned brown at mid- 

 summer, wears Lincoln green like the foresters of old, who probably 



""j^rjTSf^vii 



Downy Woodpecker. 



knew him well and respected him as a bird that, like themselves, 

 refused to live in confinement, and was only contented when in the 

 greenwood. 



Like the flicker, it has received a dozen or twenty common names 

 by which it is known among the country folk, and among them 

 highhole, yaflle, and woodwall at least are common to both this bird 

 and our own species, which appears to have been confounded with 

 the other by the early settlers. Woodwall I have never known to 

 be applied to our bird outside of a certain limited district in southern 



