264 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



On one bright December morning, I watched, for a 

 half hour or longer, ;i hairy woodpecker which had 

 alighted near the middle of an upright limb of an oak. 

 Instead of moving upwards, as is his usual wont, he 

 hopped backwards an inch or two at a time for twenty 

 or more feet, peering intently, on both sides as he 

 descended, into every crevice and cranny in the bark. 

 Xot a sound did he make meanwhile, though a saucy 

 toro-tit was uttering its " dec-dee-tlce" within a few 

 feet of his head and a zebra bird on an upper limb 

 gave forth at intervals its loud alarm note of "char- 

 char" 



Reaching the base of the limb the "hairy" flew a 

 foot or two to another and began to hop up this at 

 the same rate of speed as he had descended the first. 

 At short intervals he sounded the wood with his bill, 

 listening intently the while, and at last, I suppose, the 

 percussion was satisfactory; for, fixing more firmly 

 his stiff tail feathers against the tree as a prop, he 

 rose to the full length of his short powerful legs, and 

 drawing back his body, head and neck to the farthest 

 extent, he dashed hi* wedge-shaped bill home with 

 all the force of his entire bodily weight and muscle. 

 How the bits of lichen, bark and fragments of half 

 rotten wood came tumbling down and how han'dsome 

 he looked with the scarlet cap on the back of his 

 head, and the white central stripe contrasting so 

 vividly with the glossy black of his back! 



At last the reward came in the shape of a good fat 

 grub which was quickly drawn from its hiding place 

 by the long barbed tongue of the bird. After swal- 

 lowing this prize he was evidently well pleased with 



