THE WOODPECKERS. 153 
the time will never come when we will have no trees, 
and so the flicker will never be “ put to it” for good 
nesting sites and a chance to drum and hammer to 
its heart’s content. 
In the Middle States these birds are both resident 
and migratory, and migratory in New England. In 
a general way they are all “ woodpeckers,” and you 
notice no characteristic traits when they are in the 
trees ; but in August, when their nesting labors are all 
over, they often congregate in large numbers in the 
pasture meadows and then seem quite like another 
bird. They know that beneath the dry “chips,” 
where the cattle have been browsing, are plenty of 
fat, black crickets, and, not disposed to thrust their 
beaks through these unsavory “chips,” they deftly 
turn them over and seize one or more of the sur- 
prised insects. I have been told, but never have seen 
it, that when a “chip” is too large for one bird to 
manage, “two will tackle it and divide the profits.” 
The voice of the flicker is peculiar, and its common 
name is derived from its most common utterance, 
which resembles that word rapidly pronounced and 
repeated. My own impression has always been that 
the bird said wake up, wake up, rapidly and often, 
and when heard about sunrise it certainly is a very 
suggestive, if not altogether welcome, cry. 
