"More Noise than Music." 179 



noise, except to those who are themselves " out of 

 tune and harsh." It is a sound that attracts, that 

 bids us quicken our steps, for we are at once curious, 

 on hearing the drumming, to see the drummer. 

 There is no other sound in the woods or out of 

 them, so far as I know, with which it can be con- 

 founded, and as its tone and other features depend 

 upon the limb struck as well as upon the temper 

 of the striker, they differ a great deal ; but the asser- 

 tion that the different small woodpeckers may be 

 readily recognized by their respective tattoos is a 

 refinement beyond the appreciation of the average 

 listener, and will doubtless be relegated to the realms 

 of imagination by most people. There does not ap- 

 pear to be any set rule for their drumming, and the 

 birds are too constantly on the alert, as if in per- 

 petual dread of enemies, to test the resonant merits 

 of all the trees, or to be at all precise and methodi- 

 cal when they drum for the mere sake of the sound 

 produced. They tap trees because they are forced 

 to to reach their food, and tap again to determine 

 if there are grubs lurking under the bark, and tug 

 vehemently at the wood when digging a nest hole, 

 — all noisy operations ; and sometimes they tap 

 more rapidly than ever, as if they enjoyed the 

 sound thereby produced. That the latter statement 

 is correct has been proved by many an incident. 

 Mr. Cram's anecdote of a flicker or golden-winged 

 woodpecker illustrates this. He says, " Not always 

 do woodpeckers devote themselves to hard labor ; 

 every now and then they will take a day off and 



