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A vague pecking at his door as of an unseasonable woodpecker, finally asserted itself to his consciousness. "Come in," he said, with his eye still on the page. The door opened to a gaunt figure, partly composed of bed-quilt and partly of plaid shawl. A predominance of the latter and a long wisp of iron-gray hair determined her sex.
All at once the woodpecker was solemnly tapping tapping. Byers glanced up, as if to discern whence the sudden sound came, and once more bent to his work. "Ye b'lieves, then, ez he stole that thar grant from Nate Griggs?" asked Perkins. "I be SURE he done it," said Byers, unequivocally. The tanner took his pipe from his lips. "What ails ye ter say that, Andy?" he exclaimed excitedly.
High up on this gate-post was a worn hole about as big as a walnut, door to the mansion of some speckled woodpecker. As I whistled merrily under his sill, the master of this house stepped up to his threshold and leered down at me. He looked old and immoral, with a mosaic past, the sort of woodpecker who, if born into a higher estate, would have guzzled rum and gambled with sailors.
"Oh, I do so hope there are no little boys in the family," sighed the red-headed woodpecker; and then she added, with much determination and a defiant toss of her beautiful head: "I hate little boys!" "Why so?" inquired Fido. "As for myself, I love little boys. I have always found them the pleasantest of companions. Why do you dislike them?"
I remember with interest several such acquaintanceships. One of these was with a yellow-bellied woodpecker, the first I had ever seen. He made his appearance one morning in October, along with a company of chickadees and other birds, and at once took up his quarters on a maple-tree near the Ether monument.
The wood-duck is greatly diminishing every year, and if not completely protected, ten years hence no wood-duck will be found in Louisiana. Ivory-billed woodpecker, sandhill crane, whooping crane, pinnated grouse, American and snowy egret where unprotected.
Reddy Woodpecker begged him. "I want to eat just a few more beechnuts; and then I'll come with you." "Hurry, then!" said Jimmy Rabbit. And he watched anxiously while Reddy Woodpecker broke open more beechnuts with his strong bill and greedily ate the sweet meats. "Come! come!" Jimmy Rabbit urged him. "Just one more!" Reddy pleaded.
"Guess we'll make a fire first and see if we can't see him," said the Woodpecker. "If it was a Woodchuck I'd soon get him for you," chimed in Hawkeye, but no one heeded. Sam and Yan gathered stuff and soon had a flood of flickering red light on all the surrounding trees. They scanned the big Basswood without getting sight of their quarry. Caleb took a torch and found on the bark some fresh mud.
Fellow of the Royal Painter-Etchers' Society; president of the Woodpecker Art Club, Norwich; Member of Norwich Art Circle and of a Miniature Painters' Society and the Green Park Club, London. Born in Norwich. Self-taught. Has worked in the open at Barbizon, in Normandy, in Cornwall, Devon, London, and all around the east coast of Norfolk.
Like the woodpecker, he uses his stiff tail as a brace; nor does he go zigzagging up his wall after the manner of the creeping warbler, but hitches along in a direct line unless, of course, a tidbit attracts him to one side proving that he is a true creeper, one to the manner born.
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