106 PEPACTOX 



One makes it woodpeckair, 

 The other, woodpeckear. 



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

 well to note it. Our most pleasing 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 that correspond to the British 

 species, the barn swallow, the cliff swallow, and the 

 bank swallow, subsist upon very small insects. But 

 what a clear-cut picture is 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 " — 



or to gather this image : — 



"He has a solid base of temperament; 

 But as the water-lily starts and slides 

 Upon the level in little puffs of wind, 

 Though anchor'd to the bottom, such is he; " 



or this : — 



