THE WOODPECKERS. 153 



the time will never come when we will have no trees, 

 and so the flicker will never be " put to it" for good 

 nesting sites and a chance to drum and hammer to 

 its heart's content. 



In the Middle States these birds are both resident 

 and migratory, and migratory in New England. In 

 a general way they are all " woodpeckers," and you 

 notice no characteristic traits when they are in the 

 trees ; but in August, when their nesting labors are all 

 over, they often congregate in large numbers in the 

 pasture meadows and then seem quite like another 

 bird. They know that beneath the dry "chips," 

 where the cattle have been browsing, are plenty of 

 fat, black crickets, and, not disposed to thrust their 

 beaks through these unsavory " chips," they deftly 

 turn them over and seize one or more of the sur- 

 prised insects. I have been told, but never have seen 

 it, that when a " chip" is too large for one bird to 

 manage, " two will tackle it and divide the profits." 

 The voice of the flicker is peculiar, and its common 

 name is derived from its most common utterance, 

 which resembles that word rapidly pronounced and 

 repeated. My own impression has always been that 

 the bird said wake up, wake up, rapidly and often, 

 and when heard about sunrise it certainly is a very 

 suggestive, if not altogether welcome, cry. 



