A LAUGHING FAMILY 309 



"• Uncle ! Uncle Roy ! " cried Dodo, running through 

 the Orchard in a great state of excitement. " There is 

 a very handsome, rare, Avonderful kind of a Meadow- 

 lark walking on the lawn by the front steps. It's 

 brown speckled with black and has a black patch on the 

 breast and red on the head and when he flies you can 

 see a white spot over the tail. Do you think he has 

 come out of a cage ? " 



" No, missy, that is not a Meadowlark, is not rare 

 or wonderful, and has not been in a cage ; that is an 

 every-day sort of a Woodpecker, having many names. 

 Some think he is called the Flicker because he has a way 

 of flicking his wings, and the Yellow Hammer because 

 he hammers on trees with the beak and has fine golden 

 wing-linings. The nest of the one you saw is in a hole, 

 high up in the old sassafras by the side fence, and some 

 say that this is why another of his names is High-hole. 

 But it received all three of these names for other reasons 

 you need not bother your head about just now. 



" There are young birds in the nest now, and if you 

 tap on the trunk with a stick you will hear them mak- 

 ing a noise. This seems to be AVoodpecker day, for 

 Nat has seen the little Downy in the woods, you have 

 seen the Flicker on the lawn, and I was telling him 

 about two others ; so you are just in time not to be too 

 late. Now write the table for Nat's Downy, first, and 

 then we will have the rest of the Woodpeckers." 



The Dow^ny Woodpecker 



The smallest North American AYoodpecker — hardly seven inches 

 long. 



Upper parts black, with a long white patch on middle of back ; 

 wings spotted with black and white. Some black and white bars 



