The Birds' Calendar 



what would be their heels if they had been so 

 provided — comes a migrant woodpecker, the 

 yellow-bellied — black, white, and brown above, 

 yellowish beneath, with a crimson patch on the 

 crown. The easiest standard of measure for 

 moderate-sized birds is the robin, which is 

 familiar to everyone ; so I shall do better to 

 say that this new-comer is a little smaller than a 

 robin, which gives a more accurate idea than 

 to say it is eight and a half inches long. It is 

 interesting to watch him as he clings for a long 

 time to one spot on a tree, boring deep holes, 

 though it is not quite certain what he is after. 

 Sometimes too he will strip off large pieces of 

 bark from the trees, it is said, for the purpose 

 ot feeding on the inner bark. Nuthatches are 

 a sort of superficial woodpeckers, extracting 

 only the insects and larvae that find lodgement 

 in the cracks of the bark. 



At this time I heard an incipient song from 

 the crossbills, both while they were occupied in 

 the evergreens, and on the wing ; having a 

 delicious quality in the tone, the promise of 

 fine effects in the song-season. 



But the most important event of this same 

 day, and indeed of the month, was the dis- 

 covery of the hermit thrush, not for its rarity, 



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