( 4i ) 



XiX 



THE WOODPECKERS. 



A group of birds differing trom all others in the manner in which 

 they get their living, their tood consisting entirely of insects which 

 live under the bark of trees, such as ants, beetles and grubs. 



Their structure shows a wonderful adaptation to their mode of life. 

 They are furnished with powertul feet and claws and extremely short 

 legs; their tails consisting of stiff pointed feathers, having a down- 

 ward curve which give a firm support to the body when pressed 

 against the trunk of a tree. Their breasts are flattened to enable 

 them to get close to their work. They have straight wedge-shaped 

 bills, and extremely large heads and small necks. 



They are also furnished with long cylindrical tongues armed at the 

 end with a kind of brush coated with sticky saliva. This tongue is a 

 wonderful contrivance, being much longer than the bill, and owing no 

 doubt to the extreme shortness of the neck, is kept curled round the 

 outside of the skull, bifurcating round each eye. 



Owing to their peeculiar construction they cannot perch like the 

 majority of birds but have to cling to the sides of trees; many, how- 

 ever, descend to th grond at times in search of their food. 



They are cheery, hard-working birds, continually on the move, 

 generally working in parties, and keep up a constant communication 

 amongst themselves, to say how they are getting on, taking care to let 

 their Iriends know when they are oli. Ihey climb with a succession 

 of short rapid jerky hops, generally beginning low down and working 

 up to the top ; they then move oft' to the next tree. And have loud 

 cheery notes which in the stillness of the jungles can often be heard at 

 a great distance. Many of them also make a noise by rapidly tapping 

 a dead bough, others making, doubtless in a similar fashion, a sound 

 very like the creaking of a branch of a tree; both probably being 

 warning notes. 



Woodpeckers all nest in holes which they generally excavate for 

 themselves, often showing a wonderful knowledge as to the condition 

 of the heart of a tree, tlie one chosen always having a decaying 

 interior. The only exception is the Rufous Woodpecker (No. 983. 

 Micropterus pha^oceps) which has taken to nesting in the large hang- 

 ing ants' nests so common in the jungle. The latter lays dull gloss- 

 less eggs, all the others white glossy ones. 



Burma is very well represented by this family, thirty-six out of the 

 lifty-six mentioned in the Fauna of India being found within its 

 limits. They vary greatly in size from the giant breat Slaty Wood- 

 pecker of twenty inches down to the Small Pigmy Woodpeckers of 



