102 BIRDS AND POETS 
a black crescent, it need not be ashamed to turn to 
the morning sun, while its coat of mottled gray is 
in perfect keeping with the stubble amid which it 
walks. 
The two lateral white quills in its tail seem 
strictly in character. These quills spring from a 
dash of scorn and defiance in the bird’s make-up. 
By the aid of these, it can almost emit a flash as it 
struts about the fields and jerks out its sharp notes. 
They give a rayed, a definite and piquant expression 
to its movements. This bird is not properly a lark, 
but a starling, say the ornithologists, though it is 
lark-like in its habits, being a walker and entirely a 
ground-bird. Its color also allies it to the true lark. 
I believe there is no bird in the English or European 
fields that answers to this hardy pedestrian of our 
meadows. He is a true American, and his note one 
of our characteristic April sounds. 
Another marked April note, proceeding some- 
times from the meadows, but more frequently from 
the rough pastures and borders of the woods, is the 
call of the high-hole, or golden-shafted woodpecker. 
It is quite as strong as that of the meadowlark, but 
not so long-drawn and piercing. It is a succession 
of short notes rapidly uttered, as if the bird said 
“ if-if-if-if-if-if-if.”, The notes of the ordinary 
downy and hairy woodpeckers suggest, In some way, 
the sound of a steel punch; but that of the high- 
hole is much softer, and strikes on the ear with real 
springtime melody. The high-hole is not so much 
a wood-pecker as he is a ground-pecker. He subsists 
