THE GKEEN WOOD-PECKER. 213 



nature as well as the murmur of the dove, or the song of the 

 nightingale. The subject is one of veiy nice investigation, 

 and dangerous for theorizing; but really it seems that there 

 are in the love-sounds of birds (and of all animals) some 

 implications of promised assistance, or implied capacitv for 

 the rearing and defending of the young. The crowing 01 the 

 male gallinae, which is their love-note, is also the song of 

 victory, by which they make proclamation from the top of 

 the dunghill, or a hillock in the field, that they have van- 

 quished a rival, and so secured the pastures for their own 

 females and their broods. Many other instances will occur 

 to the reader in which the love-note is also the expression of 

 exultation at abundance; and the drumming of the wood- 

 pecker on the hollow tree is an expression of the very same 

 operation, by which a nest (if need be) is to be formed, and 

 food is to be found. Indeed, we may rest assured that 

 though the songs of the birds are delightful to us, that is not 

 their use in nature, but that they are understood by the 

 parties for and to whom they are poured forth, and that they 

 are heard by these with understanding, or an inspiration of 

 confidence ; and further, that they have some very direct 

 and palpable relation to the economy of the bird, which by 

 careful observation we could find out. 



If the tree affords no natural hole fit for the purpose of 

 nidification, the wood-peckers set about excavating one with 

 their bills. They do that by turns, and they do it with 

 wonderful expedition, their bills, while they are at work, 

 going so fast that the strokes cannot be counted either by 

 the eye or the ear. They know the tree by the sound ; and 

 though they will cut through a few layers of perfect wood, 

 they never mine into a tree unless it has begun to decay in 

 the interior. Such a choice would be inconsistent for two 

 reasons; first, the great labour of making the nest, and 

 secondly, the comparatively smaller quantity of food they 



