t it almost as often as the males;
the latter are known by the scarlet band at the back of the head.
Perhaps it is not a love call after all; it may be only the exuberance
of spirits caused by a fine breakfast and a warm morning.

Downy kept it up, heedless of the human observer. But when a red
squirrel ran up the tree to within four feet of the spot chosen for a
sounding board, Downy suddenly left. The squirrel sat in the sunshine
and smoothed his fur with his nose and his paws, like a cat.

Two big hairy woodpeckers were on a neighboring tree, but they were
not so fearless. One can hardly get nearer than thirty feet. The field
glass is a great help in such cases, and no one should go to the woods
without one, or at least a good opera glass. These two were both
males. That could be easily told by the bright scarlet band on the
back of their heads. The rest of the plumage is much like the downy
woodpecker. Both have beautiful black wings, spotted and striped with
white and a broad white stripe down the back. Downy's white outer
tail-feathers are barred with black; the Hairy's are all white. Downy
is sparrow-size; Hairy is robin-size. Downy is usually a gentle
creature; Hairy is aggressive and militant. Downy is a little Lord
Fauntleroy; Hairy is a Robin Hood.

One other woodpecker was seen on this lucky bird-day. It was the
red-bellied woodpecker, more rare and more shy than either of the
others. His breast is a grayish white tinged with red, and his back is
barred white and black like a ladder; but the black is not so deep and
vivid as that of the other woodpeckers. He has no white stripe down
the middle of his back. His nape and crest are both scarlet and he
utters a hoarser squeak than either the downy or the hairy.

One of the events of the day was the sight of the winter wren, the
first time he had been seen this winter. He was working among the
stumps of trees at the brink of the river, under the ice which had
been left clinging to the trees when the high water receded. There was
no mistaking his beautiful coat of cinnamon brown, his pert manner,
his tail which was a little more than straight up, pointing towards
his head; a little mite of a bird, how does he keep his little body
from freezing in the furious winter storms? He seemed perfectly happy,
with his two sharp, shrill, impatient "quip quaps," much shriller than
the "pleeks" of downy woodpecker.

A flock of tree sparrows were busy in and around a big t