THE GREEN WOODPECKER. 123 



I may add that the crimson colour seems one characteristic 

 feature of the woodpecker famil}', and is found on some part 

 of the plumage of almost all, if not on every species. It is 

 certainly present in each of the six British species in both 

 sexes. 



Let us now consider in brief the structure or organization 

 of the woodpecker, which is most wonderfully adapted to its 

 mode of life. Its long, straight, wedge-shaped hill is very 

 powerful. By it the bird is not only enabled to hack away 

 the bark and wood of decaying trees, in order to get at the 

 insects and other creatures lurking beneath or within, but by 

 means of this tool also, it constructs, or rather excavates, its 

 deep dark home within the trunk of some favourite tree. 

 Nor are its capabilities limited to rotten or decaying wood, 

 but, as I hope to show presently, the bill is sufficiently 

 powerful to penetrate sound and growing timber. In 

 addition to its bill, the bird is provided with a peculiar 

 tongue of wonderful structure, especially suited to its re- 

 quirements and mode of existence. It is round in shape, 

 flattened at its tip, which is also pointed, and provided with 

 two rows of horny barbs, projecting backwards towards the 

 mouth. It is capable of protrusion a long distance beyond the 

 extremity of the bill, an arrangement by which the bird is 

 enabled to secure its prey in cavities and recesses otherwise 

 totally inaccessible. 



I should like to describe, if possible, the wonderful 

 anatomy of the tongue of the woodpecker, in relation to the 

 hyoid bone J or, as it has been well called, the skeleton of the 

 tongue. 



This bone and its cornua, or horns, ma}- easily be felt in 

 our own neck just above the prominence known as Adam's 

 apple, by placing the thumb and first finger around the 

 front part of the neck. 



