WOODPECKER. 167 



eilied in the most elegant manner, though its plumage is 

 marked in the plainest. The bill is slender, round, and 

 pointed ; the nostrils are concave and naked ; and the feet 

 are formed for climbing. 



Pennant is of opinion that the wryneck is a bird of pas- 

 sage. It generally appears a little before the cuckoo, and 

 builds in hollow trees, forming a nest of dry grass. It 

 has a very singular and whimsical method of turning its 

 neck round, and bringing its head over its shoulders; 

 from which it has received its name. It also possesses the 

 faculty of erecting the feathers of its head like the jay. 

 Its usual food is ants ; which it transfixes with the sharp 

 end of its tongue, and then draws them up into its mouth. 



THE WOODPECKER. 



There are several species of this genus; such as the 

 green, the great spotted, the lesser spotted, and the 

 three-toed woodpecker ; but, though these differ in colour 

 and size, they correspond in manners and habitudes. In 

 every part of the world some of these birds are to be 

 found ; and the wisdom of Providence, in the admirable 

 contrivance and adaptation of the parts of animals to their 

 respective situations, cannot be better illustrated than 

 from this tribe. 



Woodpeckers subsist entirely on insects, and their prin* 

 cipal action is that of climbing up and down the branches 

 and trunks of trees. For the purpose of procuring their 

 food, they are provided with a long slender tongue, armed 

 with a sharp point barbed on each side, which they can 

 dart into the clefts of the bark of trees, transfixing and 

 extracting the concealed insects. 



When a woodpecker discovers a hollow rotten tree, 

 likely to contain its favourite insects, it immediately be- 

 gins boring till it opens the whole internal habitation. It 

 then emits its loud cry, which alarming the insects, they 

 are all instantly put in motion, and devoured at the plea- 

 sure of their successful assailant. It sometimes also 

 opens ant-hills in the ground, and lures the disturbed 



