42 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



woodpecker {picus pubescens). It is aston- 

 ishing how this little woodpecker, scarcely 

 larger than a sparrow, makes the woods 

 reverberate. He is one of our few birds 

 that seem to be entirely destitute of all 

 vocal expression, and it is perhaps only 

 right, therefore, that Downy should be 

 allowed to hammer away on his tree as 

 noisily as he pleases. The downy wood- 

 pecker, like the chickadee, stays with us 

 all the year round, and like the chickadee 

 lives on the larvae in the bark, which 

 he has no difficulty in procuring at all 

 seasons. 



I had hoped yesterday to hear in these 

 woods a brown-thrush, or at least a cat- 

 bird, and had thought it just possible that 

 some adventurous wood-thrush might have 

 already arrived in summer quarters ; but in 

 this I was destined to disappointment. I 

 had heard, however, the song of the pea- 

 body bird during his migration, and would 

 not have exchanged it even for the wood- 

 thrush's evening hymn. 



