42 BIRD WORLD. 



Woodpecker Family, one of whom you may see in the 

 colored picture, find wood enough to keep them well 

 employed. 



They visit the orchards and the groves, rapping and 

 chiseling the dead or dying limbs. But why are they 

 so busy, these hewers of wood 1 With what purpose 

 do they cut into the trees or tear off the bark } If 

 you see one cutting in spring, and watch closely, you 

 will find it working day after day at the same limb, 

 and cutting into it a round hole, which finally becomes 

 so deep that the bird disappears inside, coming out 

 now and then with chips, or flying for food and rest. 



This hole is a nest. When it is deep enough, the 

 mother lays five or six pure white eggs, not on straw 

 or hair, but on fine chips which have fallen to the 

 bottom. Here the young are hatched and fed. In a 

 day or two they find the chips a rather hard seat, and 

 climb by their feet to the sides of the hole, till they 

 are ready to peep out into the world outside. 



Sometimes in the autumn you will see a wood- 

 pecker again drilling a hole, this time for his winter 

 retreat ; for the most of these birds spend the winter 

 where they were born. Now, however, the birds w^ork 

 alone, for they have lived in the lonely woods so much 

 that they do not care for company, and each bird 

 keeps pretty much by himself in the daytime, and 

 sleeps in his own home by night. 



