rious long fleshy tongues,
with horny barbed tips, which they can thrust far out of their mouths,
to spear their insect food from holes and crannies."

"Can any of them sing?" asked Nat.

"They belong to an entirely songless group, but have several ways of
calling and signalling to each other. One of these is to beat rapidly on
a tree with the beak, which makes a rolling noise, each different
species doing his drumming in his own way. Besides this, they all have
jolly laughing notes, in spite of the fact that most of them are rather
shy birds. Hence they are often called the Laughing Family!"

"Are there many kinds of Woodpeckers in North America?"

"More than twenty, but you are likely to notice only a few of them. I am
sure, however, that you will be good friends with, four kinds before
snowfall--the Downy Woodpecker that you saw this morning; the beautiful
golden-winged Flicker; the gay Red-headed Woodpecker, so glossy
blue-black and white; and the mischievous spotted Sapsucker who visits
us in autumn. You will find them very different in looks and habits, in
spite of their being cousins." "Uncle! Uncle Roy!" cried Dodo, running
through the Orchard in a great state of excitement. "There is a very
handsome, rare, wonderful kind of a Meadowlark walking on the lawn by
the front steps. It's brown speckled with black and has a black patch on
the breast and red on the head and when he flies you can see a white
spot over the tail. Do you think he has come out of a cage?"

"No, missy, that is not a Meadowlark, is not rare or wonderful, and has
not been in a cage; that is an every-day sort of a Woodpecker, having
many names. Some think he is called the Flicker because he has a way of
flicking his wings, and the Yellow Hammer because he hammers on trees
with the beak and has fine golden wing-linings. The nest of the one you
saw is in a hole, high up in the old sassafras by the side fence, and
some say that this is why another of his names is High-hole. But it
received all three of those names for other reasons you need not bother
your head about just now.

"There are young birds in the nest now, and if you tap on the trunk with
a stick you will hear them making a noise. This seems to be Woodpecker
day, for Nat has seen the little Downy in the woods, you have seen the
Flicker on the lawn, and I was telling him about two others; so you are
just in time _not_ to be too late. Now write the table for Nat's Downy,
first, and t