122 PHILLIDA AQP CORIDON. 
and his mate gamboling about the branches of 
some old tree, calling in soft, affectionate tones, 
Wick-a-wick, wick-a-wick ; then you will con- 
fess that, whatever failings the golden-wing 
may have, he is not to be charged with insensi- 
bility. The fact is that our ‘ yellow-hammer ” 
has a genius for noise. When he is very happy 
he drums. Sometimes, indeed, he marvels how 
birds who have n’t this resource are able to get 
through the world at all. Nor ought we to 
think it strange if in his love-making he finds 
great use for this his crowning accomplishment. 
True, we have nowhere read of a human lover’s 
serenading his mistress with a drum; but we 
must remember what creatures of convention 
men are, and that there is no inherent reason 
why a drum should not serve as well as a flute 
for such a purpose. 
‘*¢ All thoughts, all passions, all delights, 
Whatever stirs this mortal frame, 
All are but ministers of Love, 
And feed his sacred flame.’’ 
I saw two of these flickers clinging to the 
trunk of a shell-bark tree; which, by the way, 
is a tree after the woodpecker’s own heart. 
One was perhaps fifteen feet above the other, 
and before each was a strip of loose bark, a sort 
of natural drum - head. First, the lower one 
“beat his music out,’ rather softly. Then, 
BR orice, 
