EASTERN HAIRY WOODPECKER 19 



The woodpecker's method of locating tree-boring larvae and its 

 specialized apparatus for extracting them are so well described by 

 Dr. Thomas S. Koberts (1932) that I cannot do better than to quote 

 him, as follows : 



The hairy woodpecker possesses in its tongue one of the most remarliably 

 developed and perfectly adapted instruments for extracting the tree larvae 

 from their tunnels. The tip is a rigid, barbed spear and can be thrust out to 

 an astonishing distance by reason of greatly elongated, posterior horns which 

 pass up over the back and top of the head and run together down in front of 

 the right eye, around which they are coiled for almost the entire circumference 

 of the socket ! So that, the drilling into the tunnel accomplished, the tongue 

 darts out, the inner ends uncoil, the spear transfixes the grub, and with little 

 ado the larva is dragged from its retreat into the bill of the bird, pounded per- 

 haps for a moment or two, swallowed forthwith or carried to the young, and this 

 most perfectly contrived and highly efficient engine is once more ready for 

 action. There has been considerable discussion as to how the woodpeckers locate 

 the larvae, active or dormant, which are hidden deeply in the wood and for 

 which they drill so unerringly. All the special senses of birds are very highly 

 developed, and it seems probable that in this case hearing, touch, and smell all 

 may play a part. The active grub, as it crunches the wood, makes a sound that 

 would surely be audible to a bird with its keen sense of hearing. The tunnel 

 produces a cavity which would give both a different sound and feeling on tapping 

 over it. Such things as grubs have a strong odor, and it is probable that this 

 plays a part also. 



Forbush (1927) says: "Maurice Thompson asserts that the hairy 

 woodpecker strikes its bill into the wood and then holds the point of 

 one mandible for a moment in the dent thus made. He believes that 

 the vibrations produced by the insect in the wood are then conveyed 

 tlirough the beak and skull of the bird to its brain." 



In winter this woodpecker comes readily to suet or meat bones hmig 

 up on our trees or feeding stations to attract birds. It is also said to 

 feed on the carcasses of animals left in the woods by trappers or 

 hunters and to pick the fat from fresh skins that the trapper has hung 

 up to dry. Although often called a sapsucker, there is practically no 

 evidence that it ever does any injury to trees in this way; any sap or 

 cambium eaten is probably taken incidentally in its search for insects. 



Behavior. — The hairy woodpecker is a much shier, more retiring 

 bird than the confiding little downy ; it is also more active and noisier ; 

 it usually will not allow such close approach but will dodge around 

 the trunk of a tree or fly away, if an intruder comes too near, bound- 

 ing through the air in a series of graceful dips and rebounds. Rex 

 Brasher (1926) followed one for four hours that alighted "on two 

 hundred and eighteen different trees, an average of nearly one a 

 minute ! The longest time he remained on one tree was seven min- 

 utes. This was a dead chestnut with most of the bark still adhering. 

 By far the larger proportion of the trees were old chestnuts, and 

 under their loosely attached covering he found most successful hunt- 



