92 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
opening in the swamp where the cat-tails stood 
guard, and the long-banded rushes soughed like 
wind in a forest. 
XXXVI. 
HAIRY WOODPECKER. 
THE habits of the woodpecker family are more 
distinctive, perhaps, than those of any group of 
the birds we have been considering, and the most 
superficial observer cannot fail to recognize its 
members. 
Woodpeckers — the very name proclaims them 
unique. The robin drags his fish-worm from its 
hiding place in the sod, and carols his happiness 
to every sunrise and sunset; the sparrow eats 
crumbs in the dooryard and builds his nest in a 
sweetbriar ; the thrushes turn over the brown 
leaves for food and chant their matins among the 
moss and ferns of the shadowy forest; the gold- 
finch balances himself on the pink thistle or yel- 
low mullein top, while he makes them “ pay toll” 
for his visit, and then saunters through the air in 
the abandonment of blue skies and sunshine ; the 
red-wing flutes his o-ka-lee over cat-tails and cow- 
slips; the bobolink, forgetting everything else, 
rollicks amid buttereups and daisies; but the 
woodpecker finds his larder under the hard bark 
of the trees, and, oblivious to sunrise and sunset, 
