328 THE WOODPECKERS 



inasmuch as neither this, nor any other of its congeners, seems to 

 be able to accomplish the feat of climbing down the tree, progressing 

 head foremost, a method of locomotion which the little nuthatch per- 

 forms with ease, though the feet, be it noted, do not display the highly 

 specialised character seen in those of the woodpeckers. For short 

 distances, however, they will often descend backwards, by a series of 

 backward, jerky hops. 



The beak of the woodpeckers is of unusual density, and in shape 

 recalls a pick-axe, characters which one might assume to be due 

 solely to the requirements of the capture of food. But, as our native 

 woodpeckers show, this is not actually the case, for though on 

 occasion bits of bark are hewed from trees in the search for insects, 

 as a rule no such violent measures are necessary, their defenceless 

 victims being seized by the action of a protrusible tongue, barbed at 

 the tip, and coated with a glutinous saliva. But to these points we 

 shall return presently. For the moment we are concerned with the 

 nature of the food, which consists mainly of insects, though during 

 the autumn nuts and fruit are also eaten. It is a moot point whether 

 stores of nuts for winter consumption are laid up, as in the case of 

 the Californian woodpecker (Melanerpes fwmicivorus), which is said to 

 combine in considerable numbers in harvesting acorns, inserting them 

 in holes drilled for the purpose in oak-trees. But the Rev. F. C. R. 

 Jourdain tells me that he has found stores of oak galls laid up in 

 neatly bored holes on Cannock Chase, and these he thinks must have 

 been placed there by woodpeckers. If there be doubt as to the stor- 

 ing habit, we are certain that our birds do not indulge in the repre- 

 hensible practice of stealing the eggs and young of other birds, as in 

 the case of another American species, Melanerpes erythrocephala, which 

 has been known to wipe out a whole colony of swallows, and which 

 further varies its diet by eating frogs ! That this particular species 

 has departed a long way from the habits of its tribe there can be 

 no doubt, but the causes which induced so strange a change seem 

 beyond discovery. 



