88 THE SPRING OF THE YEAR 



listen as he comes lilting and singing over your 

 head. 



Ill 



There are some birds that cannot sing: the belted 

 kingfisher, for instance ; he can only rattle. You 

 must hear him rattle. You can do as well yourself if 

 you will shake a " pair of bones " or heave an anchor 

 and let the chain run fast through the hawse-hole. 

 You then must hear the downy woodpecker doing 

 his rattling rat-ta-tat-tat-tat-tat (across the page and 

 back again), as fast as rat-ta-tat can tat. How he 

 makes the old dead limb or fence-post rattle as he 

 drums upon it with his chisel bill. He can be heard 

 half a mile around. 



Then high-hole, the flicker (or golden-winged 

 woodpecker), you must hear him yell, Up-up-up-up-up 

 up-up-up-up-up-up , a ringing, rolling, rapid kind 

 of yodel that echoes over the spring fields. 



IV 



You must hear the nighthawk and the whip-poor- 

 will. Both birds are to be heard at twilight, and the 

 whip-poor-will far into the night. At the very break 

 of dawn is also a good time to listen to them. 



At dusk you will see (I have seen him from the 

 city roofs in Boston) a bird about the size of a pigeon 

 mounting up into the sky by short flights, crying 

 peent, until far over your head the creature will sud- 

 denly turn and on half-closed wings dive headlong 



