THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS: HIS TAIL 95 



We should remark, perhaps, that the wood- 

 pecker's tail is always composed of twelve feath- 

 ers — ten pointed rectrices and two tiny abortive 

 feathers so short and so hidden that no attention 

 is paid to them. The ten principal feathers are 

 arranged in corresponding pairs numbered from 

 the outside to the centre as first, second, third, 

 fourth, and fifth pairs. 



In the flickers all ten feathers have wide vanes 

 and are similar in everything but the shape ; all 

 are more or less pointed. The flicker's tail looks 

 and feels very much like that of any other bird 

 except that the shafts are stiffer and the vanes 

 contract to an acuminate tip. But as we take 

 up the other species we notice a change, not only 

 in the shape of the feathers but much more in 

 their texture and in the difference between the 

 various pairs. While in the flicker four pairs 

 out of five are pointed and all are rigid, in 

 the downy and the hairy three pairs out of five 

 seem to be too soft to give any support, the 

 sharp points have disappeared, and the tail has 

 lost much of its stiffness. The two middle pairs 

 of feathers are the only ones capable of doing 

 much work and they are wavering and infirm at 

 the tips where we should expect them to be 

 strongest. In the logcock it is about the same, 

 — two pairs are apparently unfit for work, one 



