126 A JOLLY RED-HEAD. 



varies according to the object upon which he ham- 

 mers. For instance, if it is a large hollow tree, 

 the sound is coarse and resonant, as one would ex- 

 pect. If he beats upon a piece of partly loosened 

 bark, his tune is sharp and penetrating. On a tin 

 or slate roof the sound is precisely what it would 

 be if you or I should pound rapidly upon tlie same 

 object with a similar instrument. But how can he 

 beat so fast with his bill? Just as a drummer boy 

 deftly taps his snare drum so rapidly that you 

 cannnot count the strokes, and almost think that 

 his drumsticks must be small boards rounded at 

 the end. 



Of all the woodpeckers that I have studied, the 

 red-head is the most expert on the wing. Of 

 course, he follows the fashion of the family when 

 he flies, going in a kind of gallop from one perch 

 to another. But other woodpeckers seem to re- 

 gard flying as a serious business, and are therefore 

 on the wing only as much as is necessary to secure 

 food and escape from their foes. Not so with our 

 crimson-headed acrobat, who often performs the 

 most amazing feats of scaling in the air out of 

 pure exuberance of spirits. He must have some 

 valve of escape for his rollicksome nature, and so 

 he frequently hurls himself out into the air as if 



