SAPSUCKER, YELLOW-BELLIED 



Though the sapsucker has to be content with a mottled 

 black and white coat, he wears, besides a red cap, a crim- 

 son frontlet, a bib-shaped piece of crimson satin fastened 

 close under his chin, and bordering this a circlet of black 

 satin, below which, and falling to his feet, is his pale yellow 

 robe. ... He spends much of his time riddling live 

 trees with squarish holes, to which he returns to drink 

 the oozing sap and feast upon the insects that gather. 



FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Birds Through an Opera Glass. 2 



SPARROW, CHIPPING. HAIR-BIRD 



He is called "hair-bird" because he lines his nest with 

 horse or cow hair, and when you think of the close observa- 

 tion and industry it takes to find this hair you will recognize 

 not only the power of inherited habit, but the fitness of 

 the name. 



FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Birds Through an Opera Glass. 2 



In this bird we have an instance of a creature winning 

 its way to our regard without any effort on its part other 

 than the general loveliness of its disposition. It performs 

 no great feats of flight like the swallow; it builds no con- 

 spicuous nest like the oriole; it sings but the simplest 

 ditty of all our birds; but it does come to our doors; it 

 does salute us with a cheerful song; it offers to be friendly 

 and so wins our hearts. 



ABBOTT. Birdland Echoes. 28 



130 



