8 THE WOODPECKERS 



type of a bird devoted to business and enjoying 

 it. No other bird has so much work to do all 

 the year round, and none performs his task with 

 more energy and sense. The woodpecker makes 

 no aristocratic pretensions, puts on none of the 

 coy graces and affectations of the professional 

 singer ; even his gay clothes fit him less jauntily 

 than they would another bird. He is artisan to 

 the backbone, a plain, hard-working, useful 

 citizen, spending his life in hammering holes in 

 anything that appears to need a hole in it. Yet 

 he is neither morose nor unsocial. There is a 

 vein of humor in him, a large reserve of mirth 

 and jollity. We see little of it except in the 

 spring, and then for a time all the laughter in 

 him bubbles up ; he becomes uproarious in his 

 glee, and the melody which he cannot vent in 

 song he works out in the channels of his trade, 

 filling the woodland with loud and harmonious 

 rappings. Above all other birds he is the friend 

 of man, and deserves to have the freedom of the 

 fields. 



