THE WOODPECKERS: BIRD FRIENDS OF OUR FORESTS 



By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D., R. A. O. U. 



Fellow American Ornithologists' Union, Etc. 



sufficient extent 

 obtain such' 

 food as they 

 custom arily 

 live upon. 



In the pres- 

 ent article it 

 will be shown 

 how many 

 kinds of these 

 truly beautiful 

 forms we have 

 m the United 

 States, for al- 

 together there 

 are no fewer 

 than forty-six 

 species and 

 subspecies o f 

 them in the 

 "Check List" of 

 North Ameri- 

 can Birds, is- 

 sued in 1910. 

 Still others 

 may have been 

 described since 

 that date, and 

 a few more 

 may be discov- 

 ered in the fu- 

 ture as inhab- 

 iting the least 

 known parts of 

 our country. 



For genera- 

 tions past, 

 many biogra- 

 phers of birds 

 throughout the 

 world have 

 published fig- 

 ures and ac- 

 counts of this 



HERE are no woodpeckers in 

 Madagascar, nor do any oc- 

 cur in the avifauna of any 

 part of the great Australian 

 continent. Upon the other 

 hand, we meet with repre- 

 sentatives of this most inter- 

 esting group of birds in all 

 those areas of the world 

 where we find forests of 

 to attract them places where they can 



order Pici or of the main family of it the Picidac. 

 Their various plumages; their habits; the appearance 

 and growth of their young; their nest and eggs in 

 short, all about them is more or less known to profes- 

 sional ornithologists, and, to some extent, to those inter- 

 ested in a general way in our birds. 



Personally I have never traced the vernacular name 

 applied to the members of this group, nor do I know 

 who first called them woodpeckers. It must be a term 

 of very early origin, for these birds constitute an ancient 

 assemblage ; and, as their habits have not changed within 



the recollection 

 of man, the 

 name, or its 

 equivalent in 

 several lan- 

 guages, has 

 long been ap- 

 plied to them. 

 Indeed, their 

 most conspicu- 

 ous habit is to 

 "peck" away 

 at the bark and 

 inner wood of 

 a great variety 

 of trees, and 

 this they do 

 for two very 

 different pur- 

 poses. When 

 the wood is 

 (lead and de- 

 caying, these 

 birds attack it 

 with their 

 strong and in 

 some species 

 powerful bills 

 in their quest 

 of insects and 

 grubs that 

 hide in it, as it 

 is upon these 

 that woodpeck- 

 ers subsist. 

 Less often they 

 obtain similar 

 food from 

 trees that are 

 sound and 

 OUR L.^RGEST WOODPECKER, THE IVORY-BILL healthv. with. 



Fig. \. This magnificent species, over twenty inches long, is on the road to complete d oubtless, 



extermination. It now occurs only in certain localities in the Gulf States. The male , 



(to the left) has a splendid red crest, lacking in the female. Copied from a life-size oil more or less 



painting by the author. benefit to 



