" MORE NOISE THAN Music.' 



185 



mon." When we consider that from Southern New 

 Hampshire to Southern New Jersey is not so very 

 great a distance for migrating or wandering birds to 

 travel, it is surprising that they keep so closely to 

 their proper haunts. There are no barriers to flight, 

 and to even weak-winged birds two or three hun- 

 dred miles is not a 

 matter of importance. 

 If there is a reason 

 for the journey, they 

 are able to take it 



Take the few 

 woodpeckers that are 

 native here, and in- 

 clude the now rare 

 pileated 1 o g-c o c k, 

 once so common, and 

 it must be admitted 

 that we have a noisy 

 crew ; but I do not 

 use this word "noisy" 

 as meaning a dis- 

 agreeable sound. 

 Far from it. We 



must Consider the Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker. 



surroundings, the 



time, the circumstances ; it is the result we anticipate 

 when a witness of what transpires ; it is a pleasant 

 sound, a meaning-full sound, and never a meaning*- 

 less noise. Not, as that shallow townsman said, 

 "more noise than music," but always, if we are our- 



16* 



