366 Wild Life in Wales 



birds. The feathers on the top of the head are streaked 

 with crimson, and the dark bands either wanting or greatly 

 dulled with grey and olive-brown ; yet in this apparently 

 subdued plumage the young bird, though also less in size 

 than its parents, is certainly not less conspicuous on the 

 wing as it dashes off through the trees. It is also less wary, 

 or less prone to seek refuge in flight, and will sometimes 

 allow of a near approach, whilst it dodges the intruder 

 behind the trunk of a tree, a proceeding which I have 

 never observed in the adult bird. 



The long, horny tongue, with its much-barbed tip, and 

 its extraordinary capacity for protrusion, is also an object 

 which will well repay the attention of any young naturalist 

 handling a Woodpecker for the first time. The function 

 of the barbs is not, apparently, that which a first sight 

 might suggest. "An examination of the crop shows 

 that the prey is not transfixed, as many people have 

 supposed, by the horny tip of the tongue, but simply 

 captured by the application of its slimy and adhesive surface, 

 though probably the barbs assist in detaching the insects 

 from their hold. . . . On each side of the head, behind 

 and below the ear, is a large elongated parotid gland, 

 whence a duct passes forward to the symphysis of the 

 mandible, and just where the tip of the tongue habitually 

 rests. Through this duct the glutinous secretion of the 

 glands flows copiously, keeping the tip constantly moist, 

 and thus fitted for securing the smaller insects on which 

 the bird so much feeds, while it is freely supplied with 

 mucus each time that it is retracted into the mouth." 1 



Far out on the moor, near Blan Lliw, a single Stock 

 Dove flew over me. Moderately frequent in the lower 

 valleys, this bird does not often seem to trust itself amongst 

 the mountains proper, though there was a nest on Arenig, 

 above Cwmtylo, in 1906. Probably it is its fear of the 

 Peregrine that acts as a deterrent to its spreading, for a 

 pigeon on the moors is almost irresistible to a falcon. Round 

 every eyrie of the Peregrine, which I visited in Wales, the 

 remains of pigeons outnumbered those of all other prey, 

 1 YarrelVs British Birds, 4th ed., vol. ii. p. 466. 



