strong feet and sharp claws enable it to liold tirmly to the bark, and the stiff 

 spiny tail feathers also come in play while it is at work, acting as a support for 

 the body, which is well thrown back when a blow is delivered with its powerful 

 chist"l-like bill. 



Although usually rather shy, when busy in search of food one will occasion- 

 ally allow itself to be very closely approached. I have seen one alight on the 

 trunk of a crab-apple tree within three feet of me and deliberately commence 

 searching for larvae, apparently perfectly unconcerned about my presence, and 

 when I moved up a little closer he simply hopped around on the opposite side 

 of the tree and continued his search. Every once in a while, however, his head 

 would appear from behind the tree to see if I were still watching him. He 

 remained fully thirty minutes on the same tree where he evidently found an 

 abundance of food, and then flew off uttering several loud notes like huip, huip. 

 His ordinary call sounds like triii, triii, a shrill rattling note. 



The tongue of the majority of our woodpeckers is especially adapted for 

 extracting larvae, etc., from the wood in which they live. The tongue proper 

 is rather small, flat, and terminates in a sharp, homy point, which is armed 

 at the sides with a series of bristle-like barbed hooks. The worm-like neck, or 

 the hyoid process to which it is attached, is generally rather long and curves 

 around the back of the skull in a sheath, and this can readily be thrown forward 

 for two or three inches. A sticky saliva is also secreted, with which the tongue 

 is covered to facilitate the extraction of the food of which they are in search. 



Their sense of hearing must be exceedingly acute, as they appear to detect 

 readily the slightest movement of any insect under the bark or in the solid 

 wood, and they make no mistakes in properly locating it. Their flight is rapid, 

 undulating, usually not very protracted, and they rarely descend to the ground in 

 search of food, where their movements are rather awkward and clumsy. 



Nidification usually begins early in April, and it requires about a week 

 to prepare the nesting site. Both sexes take part in this labor, and it is really 

 wonderful how neat and smooth an excavation these birds can make with their 

 chisel-shaped bills in a comparatively short time. The entrance hole is as 

 round as if made with an auger, about two inches in diameter, and just large 

 enough to admit the body of the bird; the edges are nicely beveled, the inside 

 is equally smooth, and the cavity is gradually enlarged toward the bottom. The 

 entrance hole, which is not unfrequently placed under a limb for protection 

 from the weather, generally runs in straight through the solid wood for about 

 three inches and then downward from ten to eighteen inches, and .some of 

 the finer chips are allowed to remain in the bottom of the cavity in which the 

 eggs are deposited. 



After this is completed the male frequently excavates another hole, or 

 even several in the same tree, or in another close by, in which to pass the 

 night or to seek shelter, and to be close to the nest while the female is incubating. 

 These holes are not as deep as the others. A fresh nesting site is generally 

 selected each season, but where suitable trees are scarce the same one may 



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