26 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS 



. . . It ended with his suddenly darting at the female, 

 who took wing and was pursued." 



Our beautiful little Goldfinches, that are so sombre in 

 winter as to be scarcely recognized as the same bird that 

 is so brightly colored in summer, nest late in the season ; 

 the latter part of June or in July. But all the time, from 

 early spring, the male is sporting his attractive coat of 

 yellow and calls lovingly to his mate. It is a wise pro- 

 vision of nature that the l^rightly colored Goldfinches 

 should put on a plain garb in winter, when the leafless 

 and barren trees would make a brighter suit a deadly 

 mark for its enemies. 



TheGolden-winged Woodpecker, or "Flicker," not only 

 uses his bill to procure his food and build his home, but 

 in spring carries on a drumming on the most resonant 

 limb he can find, with the object of wooing a suitable 

 mate. Sometimes they drum to each other after they are 

 happily mated, as though renewing their mutual vows. 

 One bird writer says that he saw two Flickers clinging to 

 a shellbark tree, one about fifteen feet above the other, 

 and each had a strip of loose bark before it. First the 

 lower one would beat his drum, softly, then he would stop 

 and hold his head back to listen ; the other would answer 

 him. 



