POPULAR WOODPECKERS 47 



chat. He, too, was in the secret, and had 

 been for a good while. " Pretty nice birds," 

 his verdict was. And at a later visit a man 

 with his dog suddenly appeared. "Hand- 

 some, are n't they ? " he began, by way of 

 good-morning. He had seen one of them as 

 long ago as when snow was on the ground, 

 but he didn't discover the nest. He was 

 looking in the wrong place. Since then he 

 had spent hours in watching the birds, and 

 believed that he could tell the female's voice 

 from the male's. " There ! " said he ; " that 's 

 the mother's call." He was acquainted with 

 all the birds, and could name them all, he 

 said, simply by their notes ; and he told me 

 many things about them. There were gros- 

 beaks here. Did I know them? And tana- 

 gers, also. Did I know them ? And another 

 bird that he was especially fond of ; a beauti- 

 ful singer, though it never sang after the 

 early part of the season ; the indigo-bird, its 

 name was. Did I know that ? 



As will readily be imagined, we had a good 

 session (one does n't fall in with so congenial 

 a spirit every day in the week), though it 

 ran a little too exclusively to questions and 



