92 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



opening in the swamp where the cat-tails stood 

 guard, and the long-banded rushes soughed like 

 wind in a forest. 



XXVI. 



HAIRY WOODPECKER. 



THE habits of the woodpecker family are more 

 distinctive, perhaps, than those of any group of 

 the birds we have been considering, and the most 

 superficial observer cannot fail to recognize its 

 members. 



Woodpeckers the very name proclaims them 

 unique. The robin drags his fish-worm from its 

 hiding place in the sod, and carols his happiness 

 to every sunrise and sunset ; the sparrow eats 

 crumbs in the dooryard and builds his nest in a 

 sweetbriar ; the thrushes turn over the brown 

 leaves for food and chant their matins among the 

 moss and ferns of the shadowy forest ; the gold- 

 finch balances himself on the pink .thistle or yel- 

 low mullein top, while he makes them " pay toll " 

 for his visit, and then saunters through the air in 

 the abandonment of blue skies and sunshine ; the 

 red-wing flutes his o-ka-lee over cat-tails and cow- 

 slips ; the bobolink, forgetting everything else, 

 rollicks amid buttercups and daisies ; but the 

 woodpecker finds his larder under the hard bark 

 of the trees, and, oblivious to sunrise and sunset, 



