uch you get is small.

Now, my little boy, remember that,
And try to be kind and good,
When you see the woodpecker's sooty dress,
And see her scarlet hood.

You mayn't be changed to a bird, though you live
As selfishly as you can;
But you will be changed to a smaller thing--
A mean and a selfish man.

--Phoebe Cary.

[1] Used by permission of and special arrangement with Houghton,
Mifflin & Co.

ALL ABOUT THE WOODPECKER

SUGGESTIONS FOR FIELD LESSONS

Comes north in May--often stays all winter--most commonly seen in the
fall.

Song--shrill, lively call resembling the voice of the tree-frog.

Male and female have crimson head and neck--upper parts black with
white marking--white band across wings--most conspicuous when bird is
in flight.

Lower parts white--bill wedge-shaped, strong, and sharp--tail strong
and stiff, used as a brace when clinging to a tree-trunk and tapping
with bill--toes arranged two in front and two behind for better support
in clinging to tree trunks, etc.

Young birds resemble the parents, except that in colour they are a
mottled gray.

Food is largely fruit--green corn, nuts, and larval insects procured
from tree-trunks.--Sometimes stores away nuts, etc.

Place chosen for nest is usually a rotting tree, which is easier to
bore.--Hollow from fifteen to eighteen inches deep.--Eggs pure white,
generally six in number.

THE LARK

[Illustration: Larks]

IN THE MEADOW

If Jack's big black dog, Nero, had not chanced to snatch Phyllis's rag
doll by the head and run away with it this story would have never been
written.

You see, Nero bounded straight across the meadow and Phyllis, fearing
that she would lose the doll, ran shrieking after him.

Nero was only playing, and soon dropped the doll and ran off. Phyllis
regained her property and started to return, when a bird rose from the
grass at her feet with a queer whirring sound.

Phyllis looked up at the bird and then down to the spot from which it
had flown.

In another moment she would have stepped in the nest. This meadow
lark's nest was unlike any other Phyllis had found. Indeed, it could
scarcely be called a nest at all.

But when she looked at it Phyllis thought what a wise little bird the
meadow lark must be to choose such a place for the nest.

Had Phyllis not chanced upon it in just the way she did she might have
looked all day long and not discovered it.

T