212 BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



this is repeated, and the woodlands ring with the noise. 

 It is difficult to judge from what distance or direction it 

 comes, but as we wander on it becomes louder. There ! 

 That last time it was quite near and its direction certain. 

 We look up and see on a tree not many yards away a 

 fairly large, stout bird, crowned with bright red, clad in 

 rich, dark green, and armed with a powerful, chisel-like 

 beak. Its attitude is characteristic : it is clinging to the 

 underside of a thick, slanting limb some twenty feet from 

 the ground. It grips the bark with its strongly clawed 

 toes, two in front and two behind on each foot. Part of 

 the weight is borne and the balance preserved by use 

 of the tail, the feathers of which have strong, spine-like 

 shafts. 



But this is all we have time to note, for the Wood- 

 pecker has seen us, and we have, indeed, approached too 

 close for its liking over the silent, springy moss. It drops 

 from its branch and makes off with a heavy, undulating 

 flight. Soon we shall hear its discordant cry from some 

 neighbouring part of the wood, or, if not much alarmed 

 by our intrusion, it may take to feeding, and we shall be- 

 come aware of the systematic ' tap, tap, tap ' of its strong 

 beak on the trunk of some tree. This tapping is con- 

 tinued as the bird moves jerkily in a vertical or spiral 

 direction, and is a means of discovering decayed portions 

 of the tree. When one is found it is soon pierced, 

 and the various insects and grubs are quickly eaten up. 

 Insects and their larvae form almost, if not quite, the 

 whole food of the Woodpecker, but they are often taken 

 on the groimd — ants, for instance, being greatly eaten. 

 The Woodpecker possesses a long, protrusible, sticky 

 tongue, which is an admirable supplement to its stout 

 beak in its peculiar method of feeding. 



Turning now to the branch to which we first saw our 



