A BIRD ANT-EATER 219 



experience, gone along with it. I doubt, myself, 

 whether insects are really secured on these occasions, 

 for there is something so nonchalant and lazy in the 

 way the stabs are delivered, that they have more the 

 appearance of a mere habit than of a means to an 

 end. Sometimes there is a little more animation, 

 but it soon flags, and the bird desists and sits idle. 

 Very different are its actions, and its whole look and 

 appearance, when feeding on the ground. Now its 

 interest — its keenness — is manifest, whilst a certain 

 careful, systematic, and methodical way of proceeding, 

 shows it to be occupied in the main daily business of 

 life. There are four clearly miarked stages in the 

 process by which a green woodpecker extracts ants 

 from the nest. First there is a preliminary probing 

 of the ground, the beak being inserted — always, I 

 think, in the same place — gently, and with great 

 delicacy — tenderly as it were, and as Walton would 

 recommend ; next comes a sharp, quick hammering, 

 or pickaxing, with the beak, into the soil, after which 

 the bird throws the loosened earth from side to side, 

 with so quick a motion that the head seems almost 

 to move in a circle. Finally, there is the quiet and 

 satisfied insertion of the bill, many times in succes- 

 sion, into the excavation that has been made, followed, 

 each time, by its leisurely withdrawal. At each of 

 these withdrawals the head is thrown up, and the 

 bird seems to swallow down, and enjoy, what it has 

 just been filling its beak with — as no doubt is the 

 case. 



The greater part of both the morning and after- 

 noon seems to be spent by these woodpeckers in 

 thus depopulating ants' nests, so that the negligent 



