58 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



Not only does the bird excavate for eggs in 

 the ant-heaps, but he goes for the ants as well. 

 I have seen two lumps of these industrious little 

 insects, each one about the size of a filbert, 

 bound up with a glutinous secretion, which the 

 long tongue is lubricated with, and other matters 

 as well, taken from the stomach of one fine cock 

 in the fall season. 



The woodpecker is fat, then. That they 

 have been palmed off as delicious waders, when 

 in a state of obesity, of course in a cooked 

 state, I will not state directly, but I fear they 

 have. To the fact that the beautiful creature 

 has been shot and nailed up to the gable end 

 of a dog-kennel, I can bear witness. A rare 

 show is seen at times ; for all the creatures that 

 do not come under the heading of game get 

 nailed up there, or their remains are left hang- 

 ing ; quite sufficient for the purpose of identi- 

 fication. I have heard him in the deer-parks, 

 when the fawns were gambolling, and his voice 

 may be heard above the grunting of the bucks 

 and the clashing of their antlers in the fall of 

 the year ; on the bare hillside also, and down 

 by the river, when he dipped down to drink, 

 on wind-swept commons, and on railway em- 

 bankments. 



