A Fellow of Expedients. 1 55 



She was so tame, he said, that in going to his work he 

 sometimes passed under the tree witliout disturbing 

 her. The moment we crossed the wall within sight 

 of the nest, the bird slipped away out of the orchard. 

 Wishing to test her, we withdrew and waited till she 

 returned. Then the farmer passed within a few feet 

 without disturbing her in the least. Ten minutes 

 later I followed him, and the bird flew away again 

 as I crossed the wall. 



The notes of the golden-wing — much more varied 

 and musical than those of other woodpeckers — are 

 probably the results of his new free life, and the modi- 

 fied tongue and bill. In the woods one seldom hears 

 from him anything but the rattling ra(-a-iai-tat, as he 

 hammers away on a dry old pine stub. .\s a rule he 

 seems to do this more for the noise it makes, and the 

 exercise of his abilities, than because he expects to 

 find insects inside ; except in winter time, when he 

 goes back to his old ways. But out in the fields he 

 has a variety of notes. Sometimes it is a loud kcx-nk, 

 like the scream of a blue jay divided into two syllables, 

 with the accent on the last. Again it is a loud cheery 

 whistling call, of very short notes run close together, 

 with accent on every other one. Again he teeters 

 up and down on the end of an old fence rail with a 

 rollicking eekoo, eekoo, eekoo, that sounds more like a 

 laugh than anything else among the birds. In most 



