A QUARTET OF WOODLAND DRUMMERS 197 



for a long time bringing them worms to eat, for the little 

 woodpeckers have great appetites which seem never to be 

 satisfied. 



There are thirty-six varieties of woodpeckers which 

 occur in various parts of North America, four of this num- 

 ber being known over a greater portion of the region. 

 The Downy is perhaps the best known of all. Another bird 

 which is sometimes mistaken for Downy comes to the 

 grove. Along in October when the maple leaves begin to 

 turn red and drop down as if to hide their blushing faces 

 in the withering grass; when the blue haze hangs along 

 the horizon, and all the plant world seems going to sleep 

 after its summer 's work, we awake some morning and find 

 a stranger in our garden. We hear his plaintive cry fall- 

 ing on our ears from off the trunk of some tall fruit or 

 shade tree. Let us hasten out of doors and look for him. 



There he goes up the side of a tree very much as Downy 

 travels. We can tell by the way he moves that he is a 

 woodpecker of some kind. In appearance he is much like 

 Downy, but seems to be a little larger and more slender. 

 There is more red on his head, too, and he wears a red 

 patch on his chin. During the night he has arrived from 

 his summer home in the far north, and he has come to stay 

 with us awhile. All winter long we may hear his com- 

 plaining cry in the grove about the house. He is really a 



