The Birds’ Calendar 
phere es Ade gS > 
what would be their heels if they had been so 
provided—comes a migrant woodpecker, the 
yellow-bellied—black, white, and brown above, 
yellowish beneath, with a crimson patch on the 
crown. The easiest standard of measure for 
moderate-sized birds is the robin, which is 
familiar to everyone; so I shall do better to 
say that this new-comer is a little smaller than a 
robin, which gives a more accurate idea than 
to say it is eight and a half inches long. It is 
interesting to watch him as he clings for a long 
time to one spot on a tree, boring deep holes, 
though it is not quite certain what he is after. 
Sometimes too he willstrip off large pieces of 
bark from the trees, it is said, for the purpose 
of feeding on the inner bark. Nuthatches are 
a sort of superficial woodpeckers, extracting 
only the insects and larve that find lodgement 
in the cracks of the bark. 
At this time I heard an incipient song from 
the crossbills, both while they were occupied in 
the evergreens, and on the wing; having a 
delicious quality in the tone, the promise of 
fine effects in the song-season. 
But the most important event of this same 
day, and indeed of the month, was the dis- 
covery of the hermit thrush, not for its rarity, 
TI2 
