rat-tat-tat-tatting

Updated: May 28, 2025

All this while there had been other birds in view besides the bluejay chick-a-dees and nut-hatches hunting their tiny prey among the dark branches of the fir-trees, Canada sparrows fluting their clear call from the tree tops, flycatchers darting and tumbling in their zig-zag, erratic flights, and sometimes a big golden-wing woodpecker running up and down a tall, dead trunk which stood close by, and rat-tat-tat-tatting in a most businesslike and determined manner.

Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts - Children of the Wild