THE WOODPECKER FAMILY 163 
beaks of the pair. The door of this home is just 
a round hole rather high up on the trunk.’ A pas- 
sage 1s cut straight in for a little way and then 
turns down, and there the room is made. It has 
to be of pretty good size, for the bird is fond of 
a large family. Five or six and occasionally 
more young flickers have been found in a nest. 
Fashions change in the bird world as well as 
in the human. Woodpeckers more than any 
others are changing their habits, and improving 
their condition. They have found an easier way 
to get a home than to chisel it out of wood. 
Nowadays woodpeckers often cut a hole through 
a board which admits them into a garret, a church 
tower, or the walls of an unused building, and 
make the nest there. Thus they save themselves 
much labor.. One even cut out a home in a 
haystack. 
These birds have changed too, it is said, in 
their notions about eating. They do not think 
it necessary to dig out every mouthful from 
under tree bark. The flicker feeds on the 
ground. He eats many insects, but mostly ants. 
When insects are scarce, he eats many wild 
berries — dogwood, black alder, poke-berries, 
and others — and the seeds of weeds. 
Young woodpeckers in the nest are fed mostly 
upon insects. When they get big enough toclimb 
