THE WOODPECKEES.* 



The Woodpeckers, wherever tliey are fouud, are exactly adapted to their circumstances. 

 The tarsi arc short and strong, and the toes hirge and armed with short hooked chiws, 

 which pierce the surface of the bark, or catch the sliglitcst inequalities. In addition to 

 the advantages thus derived from the powers of the feet, no bird is more indebted to the 

 structure of its tail than the woodpecker. Tliis jjart is, in fact, an essential support, and 

 even a propelling instrument, calculated to aid the bird as it climbs. It is com^ioscd of 

 ten feathers, the central ones having the shafts long, elastic, slightly bent inwards, and 

 graduall}^ narrowing to a point, which projects bej'ond the web. Thus pressed against a 

 tree, these points being driven in^^•ards, and catching every projecting roughness, the 

 tail acts as a springy support or prop. 



Nor less perfectly adapted to its purposes of splitting and chipping trees, is the bill of 

 the woodpecker. At its base it is strong and thick, narrowing as it proceeds, till it ends 

 in a hard wedge-shaped tip, compressed at its sides. The tongue is equally admirable as 

 a flexible probe : long and worm-like, it is capable, by a peculiar muscular apparatus, of 

 being protruded to a great extent, and is armed at its tiji with a series of short spines, 

 directed backwards, in addition to which it is covered with a viscid saliva. This organ, 

 endued with great latitude of motion, the bird inserts into the crevices of the bark, into 

 the fissures it makes with its beak, or into any aperture, in search of insects and their 

 larviT, and withdraws it ; the prey adhering to it by means of the saliva, and being 

 prevented from rubbing oft' by the retroverted bristles which bai-b the tip. 



And yet Buffon flippantly describes the family of the woodpeckers as degraded 

 miserable beings. He says, " The narrow circumference of a tree circumscribes their 

 dull round of life," and on this they are " constrained to drag out an insipid existence, in 

 boring the bark and hard fibres, in order to extract their prey." 



It is not to be wondered at, that America, so rich in deep forests, as it once must have 

 been, and indeed is now where the axe of the woodman has not yet penetrated, sliould 

 produce many specimens of woodpeckers. Ijawson thus enumerates those in Carolina 

 known to him : — 



" Of woodpeckers, we have four sorts. The first is as big as a pigeon, being of a 

 dark brown colour, with a white cross on his back, his eyes circled with white, and on 

 his head stands a tuft of beautiful scarlet feathers. His cry is heard a long way ; and 

 he flics from one rotten tree to another, to get grubs, wliicli is the food he lives on. 



" The second sort are of an olive colour striped with yellow. They eat worms as well 

 as grubs, and are about the bigness of those in Europe. 



" The third is the same bigness as the last ; he is pied with black and white, luis a 

 crimson head without a topping, and is a plague to tlie corn and fruit ; csjiecially 

 the apples. He opens the coverhig of the young corn so tliat tlic rain gets in and 

 rots it. 



"The fourth sort of these woodpeckers is a black and white speckled or mottled ; tlie 

 finest I ever saw. Tlic cock has a red crown; he is not near so big as llieotliers; liis 

 food is grubs, coi'n, and other creeping insects. He is not very wild, but will let one 

 come up to him; then shifts on the otlier side of the tree from your sight; and so 

 dodges you for a long (ime together. He is about the s\/.v ot an English lark." 



Catesbv notices the same species as Lawson, and adds others; some of whicli, in 

 connexion with the "Woodpeckers of other lands, wc sliall now proceed particularly to 



notice. 



• ritidir. 



