24 THE DOWNY WOODPECKER. 



In these same cavities they continue to take lodgings by 

 night, or take refuge in bad weather, thus making these, as 

 well as natural cavities in trees and stubs, places of conven- 

 ient shelter. 



The strongly characterized eggs of the Woodpeckers, with 

 smooth, glossy, translucent shell, and of the purest white, 

 are very gems in oology. Are they white in order that the 

 bird may readily see them as it enters its dusky chamber? 

 What a Spartan-like bed are those few chips on which the 

 young are reared! Indeed, everything about the Wood- 

 pecker indicates hardihood and industry. He is a moral 

 object-lesson to the self-indulgent and indolent. 



As Wilson has truly suggested — having no vocal power to 

 charm — the Woodpeckers occupy the honorable position of 

 carpenters among the birds.* For this purpose their struct- 

 ure is most admirably adapted. Held in position by means 

 of large, strong feet, having two toes turned forward and 

 two backward, and by a tail having every feather stiff and 

 pointed; with a strong, chisel-shaped bill, skull-bones of 

 unusual size and strength, and a neck which works like a 

 lever, they can do marvelous execution. The tongue — 

 elastic, barbed, viscid, and the back part or hyoid bone 

 being coiled up like the mainspring of a watch, and in 

 every way adapted to the seizure of insects — was well chosen 

 by Paley as a striking evidence of design in creation. And 

 the ornithologist, observing how the bird chooses the dead 

 trees and those dying from the destructive effect of insects 

 as the objects of its workmanship, will readily confirm, from 

 the study of habit, what the anatomist infers from structure. 



Closing the wings and gliding through the air after sev- 

 eral vigorous strokes, the flight of the Woodpeckers is undu- 

 lating; and, just before lighting, they glide upwards a few 



* Carpentero is the ordinary name of the Woodpecker among the Mexicans. 



