TWELVE WINTER BIRDS. 261 



wide-mouthed swallows cleave the air in varied cir- 

 cles, snapping up on the wing the myriads of unlucky 

 insects which they meet ,' but most wonderfully, most 

 strikingly adapted for the life they lead are the mem- 

 bers of the woodpecker tribe. One seeks them not 

 on the smooth lawn, nor along the margin of pond 

 and stream, nor in the blue vault of heaven above; 

 for, as their name indicates, they are peckers of wood, 

 and on trees, fences or wooden objects only, are they 

 found. Darwin, in his epoch making book, "The 

 Origin of Species," calls attention, time and again, 

 to their marvelous adaptation of beak and tongue, of 

 toes and tail. Couple with these a keen eye, a sharp 

 ear and a long, strong wing, and we have the hardy 

 denizen of the woods, who braves unflinchingly every 

 clime and finds a plentiful living where other birds 

 would quickly starve. 



Of the five species of woodpeckers which spend the 

 winter months with us there are two which are often 

 confounded by the person who is beginning the study 

 of birds. At a distance they appear to be colored 

 exactly alike, both being black above with a white 

 stripe running lengthwise down the back and numer- 

 ous white spots arranged in crossbars on the quills of 

 the wings. There is a narrow white stripe above the 

 eye, and below it a broader and longer one extending 

 beyond the eye, almost to the white stripe on the 

 back. In the full grown male there is a crescent 

 shaped scarlet band across the back of the head which 

 is always lacking in the female. The under surface 

 of the body is a uniform grayish-white. 



In size alone are the two species readily separated; 



