126 THE STORY OF BIRD-LIFE. 



parts of the bird's food which are ejected 

 again through the mouth, exactly as are the 

 pellets of the owls and hawks. On this mass of 

 bones the eggs are laid. There is a tradition 

 still extant that the authorities of the British 

 Museum were so anxious to secure a perfect 

 example of this peculiar nest that they were 

 willing to pay as much as £100 for a specimen. 

 Offers of such imaginary treasures are constantly 

 being made to this institution. 



From burrowers in the ground Ave pass to bur- 

 rowers in the trees. 



The most notable of these is the w^oodpecker. 

 The British Islands possess several different 

 species, but the great stronghold of these birds 

 is America. 



The woodpecker is a much maligned bird, 

 being accused of destroying forest-trees by 

 driving tunnels or burrows into the trunk and 

 so admitting the wet. As a matter of fact this 

 is a perfectly unjust accusation. The birds 

 always choose a weak spot upon which to 

 operate, one from which the life has already 

 been sapped by fungi. Wherever such parasites 

 grow, they kill the wood. The mischief, how- 

 ever, is not apparent to any but the trained eye 

 of this master of forestry — the woodpecker. He 

 seizes upon these weak spots as "desirable sites 

 for building purposes," the wood being soft, and 

 yielding readily to the blows of his powerful beak. 

 No nest is made, the eggs being laid upon the 

 smaller chips which fall to the bottom of the 

 hole during the process of excavation. 



It might be mentioned here that in the wood- 



