48 LEAVES FROM AN APRIL JOURNAL. 



then they play up and down in the air like two 

 monstrous ephemerids. All these antics are per- 

 formed for the entertainment of Mademoiselle 

 Flicker, who with her nice discrimination, and in 

 her own sweet good time will choose the cleverest 

 of these crazed acrobats for her husband. How 

 clean and fresh their plumage looks ! Presently 

 one flies off in the meadow and probes for worms. 

 He gives several quick stabs with his sharp bill 

 into the soft earth as though it was a tree 

 trunk, and then remains motionless for some time, 

 with head down, evidently to impale the mor- 

 sel with his barbed tongue. He hops along slowly 

 and awkwardly, as if he had not yet learned per- 

 fectly the trade of the robins, that now lift their 

 heads proudly and stare at him, as if to say, " "Why 

 are you trespassing on our domains ? " Is it not 

 curious that a bird whose feet are adapted for 

 climbing trees, and clinging to the trunks with 

 rigid tail-feathers, to help support its body, and a 

 beak especially formed to obtain its grub from 

 under the bark, should have thus far changed its 

 habits, and be found hopping about on the grass 

 lands like the thrushes? Perhaps this high hole is 

 in a transitional state, and is, at each succeeding 

 generation, deviating from the true woodpecker 



