14 THE WOODPECKERS 



barbed heavily on both sides, and it is extensile. 

 As a tool it resembles the Solomon Islander's 

 spear. A medium-sized woodpecker can dart his 

 tongue out two inches or more beyond the tip of 

 his bill. A New Bedford boy might tell us, and 

 very correctly, that the woodpecker harpoons 

 his grub, just as a whaleman harpoons a whale. 

 If the grub tries to back off into his burrow, 

 out darts the long, barbed tongue and spears 

 him. Then it drags him along the crooked 

 tunnel and into the narrow shaft picked by the 

 woodpecker, where the strong jaws seize and 

 hold him firmly. 



