ARCTIC THREE-TOED WOODPECKER. 



Well, here I am, one of those 

 "three-toed fellows," as the 

 Red-bellied Woodpecker called 

 me in the February number of 

 BIRDS. It is remarkable how 

 impolite some folks can be, and 

 how anxious they are to talk 

 about their neighbors. 



I don't deny I have only three 

 toes, but why he should crow 

 over the fact of having four 

 mystifies me. I can run up a 

 tree, zig-zag fashion, just as fast 

 as he can, and play hide-and- 

 seek around the trunk and 

 among the branches, too. 

 Another toe wouldn't do me a 

 bit of good. In fact it would 

 be in my way ; a superfluity, 'so 

 to speak. 



In the eyes of those people 

 who like red caps, and red 

 clothes, I may not be as hand- 

 some as some other Wood- 

 peckers whose pictures you have 

 seen, but to my eye, the black 

 coat I wear, and the white vest, 

 and square, saffron-yellow cap 

 are just as handsome. The Ivory- 

 billed Woodpeckers, who sent 

 their pictures to BIRDS in the 

 March number, were funny look- 



ing creatures, / think, though 

 they were dressed in such gay 

 colors. The feathers sticking 

 out at the back of the heads 

 made them look very comical, 

 just like a boy who had for- 

 gotten to comb his hair: Still 

 they were spoken of as u mag- 

 nificent " birds. Dear, dear, 

 there is no accounting for tastes. 



Can I beat the drum with my 

 bill, as the four-toed Wood- 

 peckers do ? Of course I can. 

 Some time if you little folks* are 

 in a school building in the 

 northern part of the United 

 States, near a pine woods among 

 the mountains, a building with 

 a nice tin water-pipe descending 

 from the roof, you may hear me 

 give such a rattling roll on the 

 pipe that any sleepy scholar, or 

 teacher, for that matter, will 

 wake right up. Woodpeckers 

 are not always drumming for 

 worms, let me tell you. Once in 

 awhile we think a little music 

 would be very agreeable, so 

 with our chisel-like bills for 

 drum-sticks we pound away on 

 anything which we think will 

 make a nice noise. 



128 



