Show LORE OF THE woodpecker aint bot 7 d in anon ant times tile tho ilard the beliefs bellef and sand convict conviction ioris s that constitute the folklore of the woodpecker or s sapsucker ap sucker at as it is sometimes erroneously ers called for its boisterous operations erat ions occur solely in quest of insects that lie concealed beneath the bark baric and are never injurious to the trees are in fact very many and varied and many of them can be traced back to a somewhat more venerable antiquity than is US usual ual in such matters probably says an english journal every one remembers havin having read or heard at one time or anther another the story of the transformation of the pagan god the son of to the woodpecker by the witch goddess circe in ili revenge tor for liis his coldness and of iber her love the talc bilco of itself is of little importance and I 1 is but one of the countless fairy legends that COMPOSO compose the lesser and and extremely poetic mythol mythologies ogle of the greeks and romans but it happily serves the purpose of illusto illustrating ra t edg the connection that eviden evidently existed in in the roman koman haind between bir birds ds and the supernatural and tile the unknown in 9 general engral and it would seem that the relation in different forms was almost universal in ancient times for the image of the bird which amused by the komans to represent the persecuted deity already mention mentioned ed a after whom the family is named incidentally in ornithology and by the au augurs urband and priests oi of the city ity as a sort af of symbol in foretelling coming events abounds in many of the marvelous and complicated complicate il sculptures and carvings of central america and peru and has even been found in some of the south sea islands and other parts of the world orld in the form of wooden charms and fe |