VIEW IN THE CONGO FOREST 
Here tree ferns grow and there is no danger of forest fires, for everything is saturated with moisture. 
The woodpeckers of this region are all rather small, in spite of the great trees and abundant insect life. 
Not a few feed principally on ants. One of the smallest, known as a ‘‘piculet’’ has soft tail-feathers 
and is only three inches long. Some of the weaver birds are insectivorous and two species climb 
about the bark of trees like nuthatches 7 
In these forests it is a common thing for the smaller insectivorous birds of many different species 
to gather in parties, all moving in the same direction as they search for food. Some of the 
‘‘babblers’’ (family Timeliidae) and true thrushes recall the ‘‘ant-thrushes’’ of South America by 
their dull colors and terrestrial habits. A few of them are in fact attracted by the moving columns of 
driver ants 283 
