THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



419 



is enabled to project this instrument to a considerable distance from the 

 bill, transfix an insect, and draw it into the mouth. Those insects that 

 are too small to be thus treated are captured by means of a glutinous 

 liquid poured upon the tongue from certain glands within the mouth, 

 and which cause the little insects to adhere to the weapon suddenly pro- 

 jected among them. Some authors deny the transfixion. 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker is one of the five British species, 

 and is also known by the names of Frenchpie and Woodpie. 



It is found in many parts of England, and, like the other Woodpeck- 

 ers, must be sought in the forests and woods rather than in orchards 

 and gardens. Like other shy birds, however, it soon finds out where 

 it may take up its abode unmolested, and will occasionally make its 



Lewis's Woodpeckkr 

 {Piciu^ torquatus). 



Red-bellied Woodpecker 



{Ficus Carolinus). 



nest in some cultivated ground, where it has the instinctive assurance 

 of safety, rather than entrust itself to the uncertain security of the 

 forest. 



Although the Woodpeckers were formerly much persecuted under 

 the idea that they killed the trees by pecking holes in them, they are 

 most useful birds, cutting away the decaying wood as a surgeon removes 

 a gangrened spot, and eating the hosts of insects which encamp in dead 

 or dying wood, and would soon bring the whole tree to the ground. 

 They do not confine themselves to trees, but seek their food wherever 

 they can find it, searching old posts and rails, and especially delighting 

 in those trees that are much infested with the green-fly, or aphis, as the 

 wood-ants swarm in such trees for the purpose of obtaining the " honey- 



