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Again Father Woodpecker did not return at the expected time （apparently at the end of every ten minutes）, and again Madam Woodpecker flounced about as is the immemorial custom of angry females. She snapped viciously at a long-legged fly that was unwise enough to light within reach of her sharp black beak; then in sheer vexation she tried to eat fragments of the punky wood about the edge of the nest. These she would taste for a little and then spit out disgustedly.
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Suddenly her mood changed. She sat quite still, and, as if she had never seen me before, regarded me with gentle curiosity, occasionally winking her dark eyes in a most charming fashion. Then she cocked her head to one side and listened, and, although my dull ears could distinguish no sound different from the subdued and all-pervading murmur of the forest, began once more the high-keyed chatter. In a few moments a sadly bedraggled woodpecker came undulating through the rain, and once more clung to the stub at the side of the nest. But his spouse was now too angry to take the silver-gray fly proffered her. Raising her voice to something like a scream, she turned loose upon him a torrent of abuse before she swallowed it, and as soon as it was down resumed her tongue-lashing.
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But masculine endurance has its limitations, even among woodpeckers. The faithful provider, dripping and bedraggled after a prolonged hunt for grubs in some cheerless corner of the forest, suddenly flicked his tail, and, flying up a few yards to the dead branch of a fire-blasted maple, began to “talk back.” He was drab, unlovely, smaller than his smartly decorated partner, and with the compact and thoroughly utilitarian body which characterizes an age-old serving class, from insects to men. What he said was short, crisp, and, I suspect, very much to the point.
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And right there came an exhibition of the superior nature of female intelligence. Madam quickly withdrew into the nest, doubtless resolved to remain there until the storm should blow over. Father Woodpecker, perceiving that he lacked an audience, angrily jerked his wet wings a few times, apparently to convince himself that he really was of some importance, and then dipped into the woods again in search of more grubs.
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Notes
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Hudson’s “Green Mansions.” William Henry Hudson （1841-1922）, English naturalist and author, whose Green Mansions is his classic romance of the tropical forest.
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sword slash, path as if made by the slash or cut of a sword.
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exuberant foliage, abundant cluster of leaves, flowers, and branches.
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logged-off land, land in which the trees have been logged-off or cut.
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1705036036
antics, grotesque postures, movements, or tricks.
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woodpeckers， 啄木鸟，birds having spiny tail feathers used to aid in climbing, or resting on, tree trunks, and a hard chisel-like bill used to drill into trees for insects.
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stub, tree stump; the short, blunt remnant of a tree.
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dipped away . The flight of a woodpecker is a succession of dips and rises, a series of concave curves.
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thunderheads, rounded masses of cumulus cloud, with shining edges, often seen before a thunderstorm.
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demented, crazy or mad; deprived of reason.
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beetles . The shape of automobiles is likened to that of beetles.
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rank, luxuriant or coarse in growth; overgrown.
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brake ferns, any of various ferns with remotely compound ferns;ferns growing close together.
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proffered, offered for acceptance.
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grub, larva of insect, caterpillar, maggot.
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curtsying, feminine salutation by bending knees and lowering body.
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“the sauce to meat is ceremony.” Ceremony adds relish to a meal. A certain amount of formality makes the meal more enjoyable.
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Scotch thanes, in Scotland, members of a rank between ordinary freemen and hereditary nobles.
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“punky,” having rotten wood.
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incubating eggs, hatching eggs by sitting on them.
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