WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



XVIII 



A FLICKER AND HIS PUN 



T length the summer's eternity is 

 ushered in by the cackle of the 

 flicker among the oaks on the hill- 

 side, and a new dynasty begins with 

 calm security/' Thoreau. 



I DO not know any American 

 bird that has so many local and 

 popular names as the flicker, 

 which the books call the gold- 

 en-winged woodpecker.* This 

 comes from his having so many 

 personal characteristics that at- 

 tract attention, and from the 



* Some of these local names are 

 borrowed from Europe that is, were 

 applied to the bird by early colonists 

 because of a real or fancied resem- 

 blance to some bird which they knew 



315 



