28 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



maneuvers and listening to the delightful pleasantries, 

 feeling that man is not the only animal endowed with 

 conversational powers. 



l^ot long since I spent half a forenoon watching the 

 interesting performance of one of these most royal of 

 birds on the chapel by Scajaquada Creek. He was 

 on the iron-covered chimney, and hammering away on 

 the sheet iron. He would stop a minute and listen for 

 a response, then call loudly in his clear, mellow voice, 

 and hammer away again on his fine sounding board. 

 He knew he had " a good thing," and he kept posses- 

 sion of it most the forenoon. When I approached too 

 near he would get behind the chimney and " wake up, 

 wake up " to let me know he w^as not asleep. Some- 

 times these " golden wings " will find an old tin pan in 

 a pasture to hammer upon. 



We have few more useful, interesting and beautiful 

 birds than these, which, although classed with the 

 woodpeckers, have few of the characteristics of that 

 family. They associate principally with the robins, 

 and pass less time in the trees than on the ground, 

 where they obtain most of their food, which to a large 

 extent consists of ants and their eggs. Although nat- 

 urally tame and confiding, they are very sagacious, and 

 have learned to put themselves on the opposite side of 

 the trunk or branches of the trees when menaced with 

 the guns of sportsmen. The highholes ai^e about a foot 

 in length, with a plumage rich and brilliant. The back 

 and upper sides of their wings are a dark umber trans- 

 versely streaked with black. The under parts of the 



