512 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Scarcely less beautiful, in their way, are 

 the GREATER and LESSER SPOTTED WOOD- 

 PECKERS. The plumage of these birds has a 

 very rich effect, steely blue-black and white being 

 contrasted with scarlet. 



The SPOTTED and BLACK WOODPECKERS 

 are remarkable for a curious drumming sound, so 

 powerful as to be distinctly audible even a mile 

 off. It appears to be caused by hammering 

 vigorously on the bark of some rotten branch, 

 the bird's head moving with amazing rapidity 

 as it beats out this curious tattoo. 



Three North American species, known as 

 SAP-SUCKERS, have the curious habit of piercing 

 the boles of trees for the purpose of procuring 

 the sap which flows copiously when the tree is 

 so " tapped." Another species of the same region 

 seems to be possessed of a persistent dread of 

 famine, storing up immense quantities of nuts, 

 which it appears never afterwards to use. These 

 nuts are tightly fixed into holes in the bark 

 of trees, and in such numbers that " a large 

 pine 40 or 50 feet high will present the appear- 

 ance of being closely studded with brass nails, 

 the heads only being visible." 



The WRYNECKS differ from the Woodpeckers 

 mainly in that the tail-feathers are soft instead 

 of spiny. Although sombre, the plumage is yet very beautiful, having a velvety appearance, 

 variegated with pearl-grey, powdered or dusted over a general groundwork of nut-brown, buff, 

 and grey. Bars and fine lines add still more to the general effect, and render description 

 still more difficult. One species is common in England. It is known also as the CUCKOO'S 

 MATE and the SNAKE-BIRD. The former name is given in allusion to the fact that it arrives 

 with the cuckoo, the latter from its strange habit of writhing its head and neck, and also on 

 account of its curious hissing note, made when disturbed on its nest. It has the long, worm- 

 like tongue of the woodpecker, but without a barbed tip. 



The habit of writhing the head and neck often serves the wryneck in good stead. Nesting 

 in a hole in a tree, escape is difficult so soon as the discoverer has come to close quarters. 

 The untried egg-collector, for instance, peering down into the nest, and seeing nothing distinctly, 

 but only a moving head, and hearing a hissing sound, imagines the hole to be tenanted by a 

 snake, and beats a hasty retreat, only to catch a glimpse, a moment later, of the bird hurrying 

 out of its perilous hiding-place. Should he, however, discovering the true state of affairs, put 

 down his hand and seize the bird, it will adopt yet other resources. Clinging tightly to its 

 captor's finger, it will ruffle up its feathers, stretch out its neck, and at the same time move 

 it jerkily and stiffly about, and finally, closing its eyes, hang downwards, as if dead. Then, 

 before the puzzled captor has had time to realise what has happened, it loosens its hold and 

 takes instant flight. 



The young are easily, though rarely, tamed, and form extremely interesting pets, feeding 

 readily from the hand, and affording endless amusement by their remarkable manner of 

 capturing flies and other insects; but they do not appear to live long in confinement. 



The wryneck is one of the few birds which will persistently go on laying eggs, no matter 

 how many times they may be stolen from the nest. A case is on record where as many as 

 forty-two were laid in a single summer by one bird an exceedingly cruel experiment. 



f fatt ky If. F. figgatt'} [Liighlcn Buxxard 



LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS 



One of the members of the group is using its stiff tail feathers as a. 

 support 



