9 



fifty yards straight to an insoct uear the ground. Look at him catch 

 that liy on the wing. How many different kinds of woodpeckers do 

 you suppose we have in our woods? Find out their names. There are 

 six or seven you will certainly see, and perhaps you will be fortunate 

 enough to meet two or three more. The red-head has numerous rela- 

 tives — thirty alone that are good American citizens, and about two 

 hundred foreign relati\es. Wouldn't you like to see the king of them 

 all, who lives in the South and only rarely visits us? He must be 

 worth seeing, with liis grand scarlet crown, and great ivory wtute bill. 

 How much larger do jou suppose he is than this one we have been 

 watching? The length with his ivory bill is twenty-one inches, while 

 this one can not be more than ten. To see such a king and queen in 

 vigorous galloping flight through the woods must be a sight worth 

 seeing. His dress is ^ery much like our red-head's. Indeed all the 

 A\-oodpeckers have a bit of red about their heads, and that makes them 

 so conspicuous that cruel women like to wear them on their hats. I 

 think the bird knows it, for he has been a little shy of late, keeping 

 in the woods and up in the tree-tops, instead of along the old weed- 

 grown, worm-eaten fences. 



Would you call the woodpecker a musician? Well, if the drummer 

 is a musician, he is one. He can also call, squawk, squeal and splutter. 

 There is another woodpecker. That is the one I spoke about a little 

 while ago — the "yellow-bellied sap-sucker." Why is he called a sap- 

 sucker? Follow him into the woods and you will find out. See how 

 many holes he has drilled — a regular band of them about the trunk of 

 that sugar maple tree. What is he drinking so eagerly? Sap, of course. 

 Robert, climb that tree, and count the holes he has made. Sixteen! 

 think of that. Sometimes a sap-sucker will stay for hours at a single 

 tree, sipping the sap, and then waiting for it to collect again. How 

 much of their time do you suppose they spend sap-drinking? Did 

 you ever see one sitting on the edge of a sugar trough drinking of the 

 ready tapped maple sap? It is a short step from sap-sipping to cherry- 

 tasting. Don't you think you would stop drilling into the hard green 

 wood for food, when you could find a superior flavor stored up in a 

 cherry, apple or grape? 



The poor woodpeckers have to suffer for their kinsman's sins, but 

 the yellow vest, and the crimson cap, enclosed by a half moon of 

 black, and a border of yellowish white, ought to enable any one to 

 know the bird of bad morals from his more virtuous relations. 



Let us go into that thicket of haw and crab-apple. Last year it 

 was the favorite haunt of the brown thrush, or the brown thrasher. 



