At Breakfast, Dinner, Tea, Supper. 21 



Birds have a very acute sense of hearing, which, 

 no doubt, helps many of them in detecting the exact 

 whereabouts of their prey. Woodpeckers, when run- 

 ning up a tree, often stop suddenly to listen, and, in 

 all probability, thus discover larvae at work driving- 

 tunnels in the w^ood, for my brother and I have 

 conducted several experiments which all tend to 

 prove the reasonableness 

 of this. He has climbed 

 thirty or forty feet uj) a 

 lofty tree on a calm day, 

 shown on the next 



as 



ig his 



PEUEGKINE FALCON S BEAK 



{p. 19). 



page, and, clappin^ 

 ear close to the trunk, 

 has been able to tell me 

 exactly how many times I 

 scratched it with a pen- 

 knife close to the ground. 

 Wood transmits sound almost lilvc a telephone 

 wire, as can be easily proved by anyone putting 

 his ear close to one end of the trunk of a felled 

 tree of any size and getting a friend to scratch the 

 other with a pin. 



Thrushes hop about quietly in grass fields, stop- 

 ping often to listen with their heads on one side. I 

 have frequently seen one, after remaining in that 

 attentive attitude for several seconds, suddenly rush 

 forward and, seizing a big worm by the head, engage 

 in a most vigorous tug-of-war, hanging back and 

 pulling until it was obliged to prop itself up with its 



