180 
POPULAH HISTORY OE BIHDS. 
" To spicy groves, where lie had won 
His plumage of resplendent hue. 
His native fruits, and skies, and sun. 
He hade adieu. 
" 'For these he changed the smoke of turf, 
A heathery land and misty sky ; 
And turn'd on rocks and raging surf 
His golden eye. 
" But, petted in our climate cold. 
He lived and chatter'd many a day ; 
Until, with age, from green and gold, 
His wings grew grey. 
" At last, when blind and seeming dumb. 
He scolded, laugh' d, and spoke no more, 
A Spanish stranger chanced to come 
To Mulla's shore. 
He hail'd the bird in Spanish speech ; 
The bird in Spanish speech replied, 
riapp'd round his cage with joyous screech, 
Dropp'd down and died*." 
The family of the "Woodpeckers (Picid^) is distinguished 
by most of the species having a long, straight, angled bill, 
the end of which is wedge-shaped, so as to enable the birds 
to dig with greater effect into wood; the tongue is very 
long and extensile, and is armed at the tip with spines ; 
the tail is formed by stiff feathers, pointed at the end, which 
* Campbell's Poetical Works, p. 335, ed. 1843. 
