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WINTER BIRDS ABOUT BOSTON. 205 
of knowledge, — enough, and (especially) not 
too much! 
The brown creeper is quite as industrious and 
good-humored as the kinglet, but he is less tak- 
ing in his personal appearance and less roman- 
tic in his mode of life. The same may be said 
of our two black-and-white woodpeckers, the 
downy and the hairy; while their more showy 
but less hardy relative, the flicker, evidently 
feels the weather a burden. The creeper and 
these three woodpeckers are with us in limited 
numbers every winter; and in the season of 
1881-82 we had an altogether unexpected visit 
from the red-headed woodpecker, — such a 
thing as had not been known for a long time, 
if ever. Where the birds came from, and what 
was the occasion of their journey, nobody could 
tell. They arrived early in the autumn, and 
went away, with the exception of a few strag- 
glers, in the spring ; and as far as I know have 
never been seen since. It is a great pity they 
did not like us well enough to come again ; for 
they are wide-awake, entertaining creatures, and 
gorgeously attired. I used to watch them in 
the oak groves of some Longwood estates, but 
~it was not till our second or third interview 
that I discovered them to be the authors of a 
mystery over which I had been exercising my 
wits in vain, a tree-frog’s note in winter! One of 
