. Bird-land echoes; . en-tion. The woodpeckers do not think of drummingnow, or they would never miss the opportunity ofrattling the long strips of bark that cling like tornribbons to these meadow hickories. One feature of the flickers habits should not bepassed by. They are not nocturnal birds, yet theysometimes work all night at nest-building; nor arethey quiet about it : the tap, tap, tap is loud enoughto attract every one of their enemies ; but if theyare aware of this, the fact does not disturb the other woodpeckers labor at night ? In oneinstance, where the birds worked on an appl
. Bird-land echoes; . en-tion. The woodpeckers do not think of drummingnow, or they would never miss the opportunity ofrattling the long strips of bark that cling like tornribbons to these meadow hickories. One feature of the flickers habits should not bepassed by. They are not nocturnal birds, yet theysometimes work all night at nest-building; nor arethey quiet about it : the tap, tap, tap is loud enoughto attract every one of their enemies ; but if theyare aware of this, the fact does not disturb the other woodpeckers labor at night ? In oneinstance, where the birds worked on an apple-treequite near a farmers house, they gave the im-pression of burglars breaking in, and consequentlythe family were kept painfully awake until morn-ing. Only by accident was the truth discovered. More Noise than Music. 183 I wonder how often the tapping of a flicker hasgiven rise to ghost stories that have never beenunravelled. The true sapsuckers, or yellow-bellied wood-peckers, in the days of great orchards and big. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. cider-mills and the distillery,—that is, fifty years ormore ago,—were resident as well as migratory birds,and even now they are occasionally seen during thesummer months; but it is in the fall, when theapples are being gathered, that we most frequentlyobserve them. They run about the trees like the 184 Bird-Land Echoes. common downy woodpecker and chatter or squeaka little ; then, taking to some tall tree, run to thehighest point that will bear their weight and fromit launch into the air and soon pass out of damage they may do elsewhere, thesebirds do not check the growth of new orchards here ;all the sap that they take is easily spared. It sometimes happens that we have a woodpeckerday here in midwinter. Flickers, red-heads, downies,and perhaps hairy woodpeckers,—all may be seenskipping about the fences and racing up and downthe fields like so many sparrows. Is it a migratorywave from the north? My notes do not ind
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1896
