Il6 GAME-BIRDS AT HOME. 



great plicated woodpecker could be heard, and 

 with care you might get a glimpse of his scarlet 

 head and big black body. For even this early, 

 and though never shot at, he was a wild and 

 wary bird, whose habits made him peculiarly at- 

 tractive, though you did not care to kill him. 

 The common red-headed woodpecker was on 

 almost every tree old enough to have dead limbs, 

 and his cheerful squeal echoed everywhere in 

 alternation with his rattling bill. Among the 

 tree-tops flashed his brilliant contrast of white, 

 black, and red, and here and there it was mingled 

 with the gold of the high-holder glimmering 

 amid the green. Little woodpeckers in gray 

 jackets with crests of carmine, fringes of red, and 

 bands of black and white, squeaked and flitted 

 here and there, hopped up and down the trunks 

 with equal ease, and hitched themselves about 

 with tail and claws as easily as the nut-hatches 

 and creepers. Everywhere above the water 

 could be heard the noisy kingfisher's rattle, on 

 many a limb that overhung the water gleamed 

 his crested head, and along the still waters of the 

 sloughs you could see his blue coat disappear in 

 the water with a splash, and a fish shine in his 



