THE WOODPECKERS 



739 



and less chisel-like than most woodpeckers', and its 

 tongue, instead of being barbed, has a sticky secretion 

 poured upon it from the modified salivary glands which 

 entangles the ants. 



The downy and hairy woodpeckers are found through- 

 out North America east of the Rockies, and are perhaps 

 the best known of all the woodpeckers. The northern 

 and southern birds have been separated into distinct 

 races because of slight differences in size, but, to all 

 appearances, the birds are the same. The two species 

 are almost exactly alike, except for size, the hairy wood 

 pecker being about the size of a robin (9.4 inches in 

 length), and the downy somewhat larger than a sparrow 

 (6.8 inches). Both birds are striped black and white 

 above, and pure white below, about the only difference 

 being that the outer tail feathers of the hairy are pure 

 white, while in the downy, they are barred with black. The 

 males of each species have a crescent of bright scarlet on 

 back of the head, that of the hairy being divided through 

 the middle by black. Both species are permanent resi- 

 dents where found, and often nest in the vicinity of the 

 place where they are fed in winter. 



Another familiar species of the southern states, rang- 

 ing as far north as southern New York, is the red-bellied 

 woodpecker. It is a noisy bird about the size of the 

 hairy, but with the whole top of the head red and with 

 the back barred rather than strijied. The red of thi 



WOODPECKERS ARE V.\LUABLE BIRDS 



A downy woodpecker and indisputable evidence of his routing of bark 

 beetles from his territory. 



belly is quite inconspicuous. Like other woodj)eckers, it 

 is fond of suet. 



The largest of all the woodpeckers is the ivory-billed 

 species, a bird about the size of a crow, and fully as 

 black, with a scarlet crest, a white stripe on each side of 

 the neck, and large white patches in the wings. It was 

 formerly not an uncommon bird in the larger forests of 



the South Atlantic and Gulf States but now is confined to 

 the largest and most remote cypress swamps of the lower 

 Mississippi Valley and Gulf States, where it is on the 

 verge of extinction. It is a wild, shy bird, and cannot 

 withstand the encroachments of civilization and the lum- 

 ber mill. 



"WELCOME HOME" 



The downy returns with a full market basket of supplies for his always 

 hungry young family. 



Nearly as large and much more widespread, though 

 confined to the forests, is the pileated woodpecker. It is 

 similar in color to the ivory-billed, but has somewhat 

 lighter underparts and does not have the white in the 

 wings so conspicuous or the ivory-white bill. The north- 

 ern and the southern forms of this bird range from 

 Quebec to the Gulf, but it is nowhere a common bird. In 

 the cypress swamps of Georgia and Floiida, however, 

 it occurs in numbers. 



The red cockaded woodpecker is one of the less well 

 known woodpeckers of the South, found in the pine for 

 ests. I{ is similar to a hairy woodpecker in general 

 appearance, but has the back barred with black and 

 white and has black streaks on its sides. 



The three-toed woodpeckers, of which there are two 

 species inhabiting the boreal regions and coming south- 

 ward in winter to northern United States, are also about 

 the size of the hairy, but have an orange yellow patch on 

 top of the head. 



In the West are found the California Woodpecker, 

 which has the habit of storing acorns in holes which it 

 drills in the bark of trees, the gila and golden-fronted 

 woodpeckers, which resemble the red-bellied species ; the 

 Lewis woodpecker, the greenest of the North American 

 species ; the rep-naped, red-breasted and Williamson sap- 

 suckers which are similar in habits to the eastern yellow- 

 bellied sapsucker. 



The sapsuckers get the name from their habit of dril'- 



