168 BIRD STORIES FROM BURROUGHS 



If the limb is at an angle to the tree and they 

 are on the under side of it, they do not fall away 

 from it to get a new hold an inch or half-inch 

 farther down. They are held to it as steel to a 

 magnet. Both tail and head are involved in the 

 feat. At the instant of making the hop the head 

 is thrown in and the tail thrown out, but the 

 exact mechanics of it I cannot penetrate. Phi- 

 losophers do not yet know how a backward- 

 falling cat turns in the air, but turn she does. 

 It may be that the woodpecker never quite re- 

 laxes his hold, though to my eye he appears to 

 do so. 



