BIRD ACTORS AND THEATRES 245 



advantage in gathering sap than in catching in- 

 sects. 



Downy has still another actor-cousin, the flicker, 

 commonly known as the yellow-hammer. He has 

 wonderful manners, and the black spots on each 

 side of his face give him the appearance of a gentle- 

 man with burnsides. Gilbert Pearson relates a 

 marvellous story of this aristocratic actor: "Soon 

 the lady bird came and perched near her mate. 

 Though she had no burnsides, she had a strip of 

 red across the back of her head, as though it were 

 her hood which had almost slipped off backwards. 

 How oddly Mr. Flicker acted when she arrived! 

 What strange antics he at once began to perform! 

 He bowed to his mistress, and spread his pretty 

 yellow wings like a cloak, as he swept now forward, 

 now backward. He stepped side-wise and danced 

 gracefully back again. He bobbed, he bowed, he 

 displayed his every charm. A brave wooer was he 

 as he laughingly, pleadingly, coaxingly called to 

 her in his mellowest and most enticing voice. He 

 said many things I could not understand, but Yuch, 

 yu'ch was what he seemed most to say. The flicker 

 is a devoted and demonstrative lover, and he pays 

 homage to his loved one at home or afield wherever 

 he meets her." 



The art of expression among birds is as well de- 



