BIRCH BROWSINGS 181 
that he has found it breeding on the mountains 
in Pennsylvania. The large-billed water-thrush is 
much the superior songster, but the present species 
has a very bright and cheerful strain. The speci- 
men I saw, contrary to the habits of the family, 
kept in the treetops like a warbler, and seemed to 
be engaged in catching insects. 
The birds were unusually plentiful and noisy 
about the head of this lake; robins, blue jays, and 
woodpeckers greeted me with their familiar notes. 
The blue jays found an owl or some wild animal a 
short distance above me, and, as is their custom on 
such occasions, proclaimed it at the top of their 
voices, and kept on till the darkness began to gather 
in the woods. 
I also heard here, as I had at two or three other 
points in the course of the day, the peculiar, reso- 
nant hammering of some species of woodpecker upon 
the hard, dry limbs. It was unlike any sound of 
the kind I had ever before heard, and, repeated 
at intervals through the silent woods, was a very 
marked and characteristic feature. Its peculiarity 
was the ordered succession of the raps, which gave it 
the character of a premeditated performance. There 
were first three strokes following each other rapidly, 
then two much louder ones with longer intervals 
between them. JI heard the drumming here, 
and the next day at sunset at Furlow Lake, the 
source of Dry Brook, and in no instance was the 
order varied. There was melody in it, such as a 
woodpecker knows how to evoke from a smooth, 
