NATURE AND THE POETS. 121 



But its hammer is a musical one, and the poets do 

 well to note it. An Illinois poet, I observe, ascribes 

 the " rat-tat-tat " of the downy or hairy woodpecker, 

 heard so often in early spring upon the resonant 

 limbs, and again in the Indian summer, to the yellow- 

 hammer, or high-hole. The high-hole is almost en- 

 tirely a ground pecker, and his beak is seldom heard 

 upon limb or tree, except when he is excavating a 

 nest. Our most musical drummer upon dry limbs 

 among the woodpeckers is the yellow-bellied. His 

 measured, deliberate tap, heard in the stillness of the 

 primitive woods, produces an effect that no bird-song 

 is capable of. 



Tennyson is said to have very poor eyes, but there 

 seems to be no defect in the vision with which he 

 sees Nature, while he often hits the nail on the head 

 in a way that would indicate the surest sight. True, 

 he makes the swallow hunt the bee, which, for aught 

 I know, the swallow may do in England. Our purple 

 martin has been accused of catching the honey-bee, 

 but I doubt his guilt. But those of our swallows 

 lhat correspond to the British species, the barn-swal- 

 low, the cliff-swallow, and the bank-swallow subsist 

 upon very small insects. But what a clear-cut picture 

 js that in the same poem (" The Poet's Song ") : 



" The wild hawk stood, with the down on his beak, 

 And stared, with his foot on the prey." 



It takes a sure eye, too, to see 



" The landscape winking thro' the heat" 



