Woodpecker, Downy 



the people. The conflict lasted for an entire day, and, at 

 sunset, Hiawatha, wounded, weary, and despondent, paused 

 to rest beneath a pine tree. Suddenly a woodpecker called 

 to him from the branches overhead, telling him to aim his 

 arrows at the roots of the tuft of hair upon his enemy's head, 

 that being his only vulnerable point. Hiawatha acting 

 upon this advice, with his three remaining arrows fatally 

 wounded his mighty foe. 



Then the grateful Hiawatha called the woodpecker to 

 him, took a drop of the great Pearl Feather's blood and 

 stained the tuft of feathers on the head of the little bird as a 

 reward for his service. 



"Even to this day he wears it, 



Wears the tuft of crimson feathers, 



As a symbol of his service. " ADAPTED. 



WOODPECKER. HAIRY 



It derives its name from the resemblance of some of 

 the feathers on its back to hairs. 



FLAGG. A Year With the Birds. 25 



The hairy woodpecker, like most of its relatives, is 

 an exceedingly beneficial and useful bird, which rids our 

 orchards and forests of innumerable injurious larvae, like 

 those of the boring beetles. SELECTED 



As the best of us can speak only in the tongue we know, 

 the woodpeckers announce their love on the drum. . . . 

 When playing his piano, "the louder the noise produced the 

 more satisfactory it appears to be to the performer." 



FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Birds of Village and Field. 1 



180 



