WOODPECKER AT WORK. 295 



a considerable way beyond the bill with great celerity 

 and force, and the point is both a net and a bundle of 

 spears, being smeared over with a viscid substance, to 

 which small insects adhere as birds do to the limed twigs 

 of a bird catcher, while the sharp processes or spines 

 with which it is armed transpierce the larger insects, 

 hook them, and drag them out of their hiding places. 

 Those who will take the trouble of watching it upon a 

 decayed tree, and after it has alighted, and began its 

 work, it can be approached very near, and is by no 

 means easily scared away, can readily see the whole of 

 its operations. It begins by beating the bark, in the 

 manner that has been stated, darting about to seize 

 whatever comes out ; when it can obtain no more by 

 tapping, it alters its tactics, and drums for discovery 

 until the sound of the place struck pleases it. There 

 it remains fixed for a time, and as the motion of the 

 head is not perceptible, unless one watches it all the 

 more narrowly, it has the appearance of resting from its 

 labours and singing its own harsh and jarring lullaby. 

 It is hard at work, however, running into the bark, or 

 solid wood, as it may happen, down to the place where 

 from the sound there is rottenness, and its usual con- 

 comitant insects, and it never stops till the labour be 

 finished and the prize won. It does not tear or pull 

 any portion, but works in the same manner that a 

 stonemason does when dressing granite, or any other 

 hard or tough stone, with a pointed hammer; thus there 

 is no exertion but that of the bill, or rather of the head 

 and neck, for the bill always strikes at right angles to 

 the surface, and, as is the case with many perching birds, 

 and also with sloths, and other animals, that sleep sus- 



