THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS : HIS TAIL 87 



peckers, these end in decurved tips so soft and 

 unresisting that they seem quite unfit to give 

 any support. Would it not be better if the 

 woodpecker's tail had been cut square across 

 and made of feathers equally rigid and ending 

 in short stiff spines ? For we see that the wood- 

 pecker's tail is not only weak in its inner feath- 

 ers, but weaker still in its outer ones, and it is 

 stiff, in most species, only in the upper three 

 fourths of its length. 



When we propose a change in nature it is 

 wise to inquire whether our improvement has 

 not been tried before and to learn how it worked. 

 How many kinds of birds have we that use 

 their tails for a support ? What are their habits 

 and what sort of tails have they ? 



Besides the woodpeckers we have but two kinds 

 of land birds that prop themselves with their tails, 

 — the swifts and ^ h /a 



the creepers. The 

 creeper has a tail 

 very much like the 

 woodpecker's as it 

 is ; while the chim- 

 ney swift's is pre- 

 cisely like the wood- Tails of Brown Creeper (under surface) 

 pecker's as we ^"*^ Chimney Swift (upper surface.) 



thought it ought to be. But we observe that 



