258 WOODPECKERS. 



of its often leaving the trunks of trees and descending to the ground, where it 

 searches for ants' nests, being extremely partial to those insects and their larvae, 

 and pickingtheinupvery dexterously bymcansof its longtonguc. Itmust not be 

 supposed, however, that these birds seek their food wholly on the ground ; they 

 search for insects under the bark of trees, or in the decaying wood, which they 

 easily shiver by blows of their strong wedge-shaped bills. They scale the trunks 

 of trees with great rapidity, climbing either straight up or in a spiral direction, 

 but they descend tail foremost, moving as it were backwards. Their flight is 

 rapid and undulating, and in flying from trunk to trunk, if the trees are not far 

 from each other, they take only a sin},de sweep. These woodpeckers make their 

 nests in hollow trees ; or, if they meet with no natural hole fit for their purpose, 

 they excavate one with their bills. In the performance of this duty the male 

 and female labour by turns, hammering away with wonderful assiduity, their 

 bills, while they are at work, going so fast that the strokes cannot be counted 

 either by the eye or the car. 



The Golden-backed "Woodpecker {Brachypternus (mrantius\ an 

 Indian representative of this sub-family, is found throughout the greater part 

 of India and Ceylon, as also in Sindh, the Lower Himalayas, and Cashmere. 

 It inhabits alike thin forest jungle, groves, gardens, and avenues, and is to be 

 found about every large town and station. It has a loud, screaming call-note, 

 which it frequently utters, both when perched and when flying in great undu- 

 lations from tree to tree. It breeds, like all other woodpeckers, in holes in trees, 

 laying three or four white eggs. 



There is a small group (Oryj'f;/^/^^), belonging to India and Malayana, dis- 

 tinguished by having only three toes on each foot. 



Sjib-Faiiiily V. 



THE BLACK WOODPECKERS. MELANERPIN^.* 



GiiNERAi. Characteristics. — Bill more or less long, compressed, and the lateral 

 ridge placed nearly half-way between the culmen and lateral margin. 



These birds are found both in North and South America. They 

 are seen in the woods, the orchards, and even on the fences in the 

 neighbourhood of houses. Their chief food consists of insects, but 

 they commit great devastation on fruits, berries, and Indian corn, 

 and are said to enter dovecots for the purpose of sucking the eggs 

 of pigeons. Their note is hvely, and so much resembles that of 

 a species of tree frog which frequents the same places, that it is 

 sometimes difficult to distinguish the one from the other. They 

 migrate during the night from north to south, flying high up in 



* /xeXttj, n^Xavos, melas, melanos, 6iack; ipvu, herpo, to creep. 



