BIRCH BROWSINGS 181 



that he has found it breeding on the mountains 

 in Pennsylvania. The large-billed water-thrush is 

 much the superior songster, but the present species 

 has a very bright and cheerful strain. The speci- 

 men I saw, contrary to the habits of the family, 

 kept in the treetops like a warbler, and seemed to 

 be engaged in catching insects. 



The birds were unusually plentiful and noisy 

 about the head of this lake; robins, blue jays, and 

 woodpeckers greeted me with their familiar notes. 

 The blue jays found an owl or some wild animal a 

 short distance above me, and, as is their custom on 

 such occasions, proclaimed it at the top of their 

 voices, and kept on till the darkness began to gather 

 in the woods. 



I also heard here, as I had at two or three other 

 points in the course of the day, the peculiar, reso- 

 nant hammering of some species of woodpecker upon 

 the hard, dry limbs. It was unlike any sound of 

 the kind I had ever before heard, and, repeated 

 at intervals through the silent woods, was a very 

 marked and characteristic feature. Its peculiarity 

 was the ordered succession of the raps, which gave it 

 the character of a premeditated performance. There 

 were first three strokes following each other rapidly, 

 then two much louder ones with longer intervals 

 between them. I heard the drumming here, 

 and the next day at sunset at Furlow Lake, the 

 source of Dry Brook, and in no instance was the 

 order varied. There was melody in it, such as a 

 woodpecker knows how to evoke from a smooth, 



