Ed ^ 
Birds of Massachusetts. 169 — 
were rejoicing to be able to return. They are cheer- E 
ful, animated birds, which do much to give life to 
our scenery in spring. Their flight is strong and 
well sustained; when passing from one tree to an- -> 
other, they move in a straight line, till they come aM 
near the spot where they mean to alight, when they i K 
raise themselves a few feet and cling to the bark of 
the tree by their claws and their tail, with a nod of 
the head and a note, from which they are generally 
called the ‘Flicker.’ They hop on the ground with 
ease, in search of food, which consists of insects 
and various kinds of fruit. In winter, they occasion- 
ally supply themselves from the farmer’s corn. They 
are a good deal persecuted by black snakes, which 
steal their eggs and young; and also by hawks, 
from which they escape by darting into a hole in 
a tree, if any one is at hand, and if not, by alighting 
on a trunk, and moving round it faster than the ene- 
my can follow. 
These birds are sometimes shot, but their practice 
of eating ants and their larve gives a taste to their 
flesh. Sometimes they are persecuted as fruit steal- - 
ers, but most unwisely, for all the vroodpech 
very efficient aids to the horticulturist. When e] 
alight on a tree, they listen attentively, and AC 
slightest movement of an insect under the bark. do 
not escape them. They enlarge the hole by repeated 
blows of their powerful bill; then striking in their 
long, viscid tongues, with thor horny tip, they seize 
the grub, and put a period to his mining. 
They build in hollow dm. found, or made for 
VOL. III.—NO. I=. 
