. Birds in literature . talls Ornithology.^* How many evenings have I tempted malaria germs. . to watch the woodcock perform his strange skydance! He begins on the ground with a formal, periodic peent, peent It is repeated several times before he springs from the ground and on whistling wings sweepsout on the first loop of a spiral which may take him threehundred feet from the ground. Faster and faster he goes,louder and shriller sounds his wing-song; then after amoments pause, with darting, headlong flight, he pitchesin zigzags to the earth, uttering as he falls a clear, twitter-ing whistle.
. Birds in literature . talls Ornithology.^* How many evenings have I tempted malaria germs. . to watch the woodcock perform his strange skydance! He begins on the ground with a formal, periodic peent, peent It is repeated several times before he springs from the ground and on whistling wings sweepsout on the first loop of a spiral which may take him threehundred feet from the ground. Faster and faster he goes,louder and shriller sounds his wing-song; then after amoments pause, with darting, headlong flight, he pitchesin zigzags to the earth, uttering as he falls a clear, twitter-ing whistle. He generally returns to near the place fromwhich he arose, and the peent is at once resumed as apreliminary to another round in the sky. Chapman. Handbook of Birds.^^ WOODPECKER, DOWNY The little downy woodpecker is everywhere. There isnot a tree too small for it to consider, and when treesfail altogether, it will climb over an old grape arbor andbe happy in so artificial a surrounding. Abbott. Birds About Us.^^ 178. Woodpecker, Downy How curious and exciting the blood-red spot on itshind head! It looks as if it had a black cassock openbehind, showing a white under-garment between theshoulders and down the back. Thoreau. Winter.^^ In getting a Uving after their peculiar fashion, the wood-peckers have flattened their bodies for so many generationsthat it has become chronic in their physique, giving thema high-shouldered, long-waisted appearance that is farfrom beautiful. Parkhurst. The Birds Calendar.^* Seeing the birds about during snow storms, we wonderwhat becomes of them in the still colder nights, but the downy takes good care of himself At night he is comfortably housed in a hole, which he digs expresslyfor that purpose. Always ... so far as my experiencegoes, he places the entrance to his burrow so as to facethe sunny south. Florence A. Merriam. Birds of Village and Field.^ Like other woodpeckers, in the spring he beats a rollingtattoo on a resonant limb, sounding a revei
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