62 Birds of Lakeside and Prairie 



had no definite name for the bird but he knew its habits 

 thoroughly. The books contain nothing better nor truer than 

 this Pottawattomie's descendant's account of the "winter and 

 summer woodpeckers/' 



The birds which were making a breakfast table of the 

 beech tree were Arctic three-toed woodpeckers, an orange- 

 pated northern visitor which is not uncommon in hard winters 

 along the eastern shore of southern Lake Michigan. Before 

 we parted company with the Indians, a downy woodpecker 

 came to the beech and began chasing the Arctic visitors 

 around the bole. It seemed to be on the part of the downy 

 more of a frolic than a fight, and I did not feel called upon 

 to interfere. The downy woodpecker, while he is the smallest 

 of his tribe, is far from being the least in interest. I know 

 no more cheerful and companionable bird than this little 

 black and white fellow with the red feather in his cap. Cold 

 cannot chill his optimism nor heat abate one jot of his 

 industry. 



Our course toward Pokagon's home took us northwest. 

 The roads in many places were unbroken, but our strong, 

 willing horses took us through the drifts with scarce an effort. 

 At times we left the road altogether and drove across lots and 

 through the open woods. At the edge of a small timber 

 patch we passed a spring with a thread of a stream running 

 away from its boiling pot. It was the first spring that I had 

 seen for years for they are practically unknown in the prairie 

 country. The little stream was tumbling over a bed of peb- 

 bles and Jack Frost had been unable to fetter it. Some 

 lisping notes fell from a maple whose boughs overhung the 

 water. In the tree I found four golden-crowned kinglets. 

 The kinglet is a winter bird in northern Illinois, I am told, 



