A LAUGHING FAMILY 309 



" Uncle ! Uncle Roy ! " cried Dodo, running through 

 the Orchard in a great state of excitement. " There is 

 a very handsome, rare, wonderful kind of a Meadow- 

 lark walking on the lawn by the front steps. It's 

 brown speckled with black and has a black patch on the 

 breast and red on the head and when he flies you can 

 see a white spot over the tail. Do you think he has 

 come put of a cage ? " 



"No, missy, that is not a Meadowlark, is not rare 

 or wonderful, and has not been in a cage ; that is an 

 every-day sort of a Woodpecker, having many names. 

 Some think he is called the Flicker because he has a way 

 of flicking his wings, and the Yellow Hammer because 

 he hammers on trees with the beak and has fine golden 

 wing-linings. The nest of the one you saw is in a hole, 

 high up in the old sassafras by the side fence, and some 

 say that this is why another of his names is High-hole. 

 But it received all three of these names for other reasons 

 3^ou need not bother your head about just now. 



"• There are young birds in the nest now, and if you 

 tap on the trunk with a stick you will hear them mak- 

 ing a noise. This seems to be Woodpecker day, for 

 Nat has seen the little Downy in the woods, you have 

 seen the Flicker on the lawn, and I was telling him 

 about two others ; so you are just in time not to be too 

 late. Now write the table for Nat's Downy, first, and 

 then we will have the rest of the Woodpeckers." 



The Downy VToodpecker 



The smallest North Aniericaii Woodpecker — hardly seven inches 

 long. 



Upper parts black, with a long white patch on middle of back ; 

 wings spotted with black and white. Some black and white bars 



