82 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



Dut, is a pleasant feature of the orchard and garden 

 scenes, and its insectivorous diet renders it a desirable 

 dweller about the premises of the horticulturist. We 

 regret that the greater fame and more splendid plumage 

 of the gay cavalier bearing the colors of Lord Baltimore 

 have caused the orchard oriole to receive less recognition 

 than it merits, and we trust that in future.it will receive 

 its share of popular recognition. ' 



EED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



What a frolicsome crew are the lively red-headed wood- 

 peckers ! And how variable are their moods ! At one 

 time a solitary individual may be heard deliberately tap- 

 ping in pursuit of a breakfast, or may be detected silently 

 dodging our observation around a branch or tree trunk ; 

 at other times they troop from tree to tree in noisy 

 trios or quartets, making the orchard or grove to resound 

 with their loud, jarring notes, as we have seen the dem- 

 onstrative blue jays flit among the tree tops in early 

 spring. Indeed, the woodpeckers are nothing if they are 

 not noisy; and whether at work or play, they must give 

 utterance to their sharp, unmodulated calls. In their 

 voluble exclamations and versatile manners, the red- 

 headed woodpeckers remind us very forcibly of excited 

 Frenchmen; and to carry the comparison a point further, 

 they ostentatiously wave their tricolored combination of 

 red, blue-black, and white as they follow or accompany 

 one another, all earnestly and loudly uttering their scold- 

 ing cries. An extended acquaintance with the red-headed 

 woodpeckers, however, will convince one that these birds 

 are more nearly typical of the true-born Yankee, despite 

 their occasional garrulity and their affectation of the 

 showy tricolor. In fact, we can see our own red, white, 

 and blue (black) in the crimson of their head and throat; 

 the white of the secondaries, abdomen, and other parts; 

 and the deep blue black of the shoulders and back. After 

 all, perhaps we were hasty in our fancied comparison of 

 these shrewd, enterprising creatures to our foreign neigh- 

 bors, since we need not go beyond our own borders to 



