THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS: HIS FOOT 83 



their friends it a little exceeds the middle toe 

 and claw ; in the downy and the hairy it is much 

 the longest toe, and in the ivory-billed wood- 

 pecker it is abnormally developed. We at once 

 judge that it is some indication of the bird's 

 manner of life, and we look for it to be largest 

 in the species that live continually upon the 

 trunks of trees, obtaining most of their food by 

 drilling. We expect to see the finest develop- 

 ment of drilling bill accompany this enormously 

 developed toe, and we find them both in the 

 ivory-billed woodpecker. In imagination we 

 clearly see the use of it. The great bird, keen 

 in his quest of grubs, sidling hastily round the 

 tree, in an unsteady balance and unsupported by 

 his tail, throws one long hind toe downward 

 to steady himself, hooks the other into the bark 

 above him, and hangs between the two as firmly 

 supported as in his ordinary position. No doubt 

 he does do this, but does it prove the supposi- 

 tion that the heaviest and most arboreal wood- 

 peckers have the greatest development of the 

 fourth toe ? Not at all. There is our rare ac- 

 quaintance the logcock, or pileated woodpecker, 

 a bird nearly as large as the ivory-billed, one of 

 the most persistent of our tree-climbers and more 

 than any other woodpecker I ever observed given 

 to scratching rapidly round and round a tree- 



