YELLOW HAMMER. 49 



of a tree or an old stub you recognize him as a 

 " woodpecker." With the help of your glass you 

 also see the bright red crescent on the back of his 

 head, for which he is probably called " crescent 

 bird." There he clings, fastening his claws firmly 

 in the bark, and bracing himself with the stiff 

 quills of his tail, so that his convexity of outline 

 almost amounts to a half circle as he bends for- 

 ward to " hammer " on the wood. This is the 

 best time to use your glass, for he is quite a shy 

 bird, and except when engaged in his favorite 

 work, is hard to observe satisfactorily, even at a 

 respectful distance. His dark back proves to be 

 barred with black, and following him as he circles 

 up the tree you get a glimpse of his breast that 

 discloses a large black collar separating his thickly 

 spotted breast from the plain light throat. 



The song of the yellow hammer is like the Ger- 

 man th he has n't any. He has a variety of cries 

 and calls, however, and a trill that sounds like a 

 great rattle shaken in the air. Mr. Colburn at- 

 tributes twelve of his names to imitations of these 

 various sounds; clape, cave-due, fiddler, flicker, 

 hittock, hick-wall, ome-tuc, piute or peerit, wake- 

 up, yaffle, yarrup, and yucker. 



Mr. Ingersoll refers " flicker " to his flight, and 

 if you watch your yellow hammer till he flies off 

 to another tree you will see that the adjective de- 

 scribes his peculiar but characteristic woodpecker 

 flight better than the most labored description. 



