46 
GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 
and perhaps not without just cause, of being too partial to the 
Indian corn, when in that state which is usually called roasting - 
ears. His visits are indeed rather frequent about this time ; 
and the farmer, suspecting what is going on, steals through 
among the rows with his gun, bent on vengeance, and for- 
getful of the benevolent sentiment of the poet, that 
Just as wide of justice he must fall, 
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all. 
But farmers, in general, are not much versed in poetry, and 
pretty well acquainted with the value of corn, from the hard 
labour requisite in raising it. 
In rambling through the woods one day, I happened to 
shoot one of these birds, and wounded him slightly in the 
wing. Finding him in full feather, and seemingly but little 
hurt, I took him home, and put him into a large cage, made 
of willows, intending to keep him in my own room, that we 
might become better acquainted. As soon as he found him- 
self enclosed on all sides, he lost no time in idle fluttering, 
but, throwing himself against the bars of the cage, began 
instantly to demolish the willows, battering them with great 
vehemence, and uttering a loud piteous kind of cackling, | 
similar to that of a hen when she is alarmed, and takes to wing. | 
Poor Baron Trenck never laboured with more eager diligence 
at the walls of his prison, than this son of the forest in his 
exertions for liberty ; and he exercised his powerful bill with 
such force, digging into the sticks, seizing and shaking them 
so from side to side, that he soon opened for himself a passage ; ; 
and, though I repeatedly repaired the breach, and barricadoed 
every opening, in the best manner I could, yet, on my return 
into the room, I always found him at large, climbing up the 
chairs, or running about the floor, where, from the dexterity 
of his motions, moving backward, forward, and sidewise, with 
the same facility, it became difficult to get hold of him again. 
Having placed him in a strong wire cage, he seemed to give 
up all hopes of making his escape, and soon became very tame ; 
