102 BIRDS AND POETS 



a black crescent, it need not be asbamed to turn to 

 tbe morning sun, while its coat of mottled gray is 

 in perfect keeping with the stubble amid which it 

 walks. 



The two lateral white quills in its tail seem 

 strictly in character. These quills spring from a 

 dash of scorn and defiance in the bird's make-up. 

 By the aid of these, it can almost emit a flash as it 

 struts about the fields and jerks out its sharp notes. 

 They give a rayed, a definite and piquant expression 

 to its movements. This bird is not properly a lark, 

 but a starling, say the ornithologists, though it is 

 lark-like in its habits, being a walker and entirely a 

 ground- bird. Its color also allies it to the true lark. 

 I believe there is no bird in the English or European 

 fields that answers to this hardy pedestrian of our 

 meadows. He is a true American, and his note one 

 of our characteristic April sounds. 



Another marked April note, proceeding some- 

 times from the meadows, but more frequently from 

 the rough pastures and borders of the woods, is the 

 call of the high-hole, or golden-shafted woodpecker. 

 It is quite as strong as that of the meadowlark, but 

 not so long-drawn and piercing. It is a succession 

 of short notes rapidly uttered, as if the bird said 

 " if-if-if-if-if-if-if." The notes of the ordinary 

 downy and hairy woodpeckers suggest, in some way, 

 the sound of a steel punch; but that of the high- 

 hole is much softer, and strikes on the ear with real 

 springtime melody. The high-hole is not so much 

 a wood-pecker as he is a ground-pecker. He subsists 



