52 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



hunting under tree-bark, are in many cases fruit- 

 eaters ; our own Greater Spotted Woodpecker, for 

 instance, eats several kinds of fruit, and in North 

 America the Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes 

 erytbrocepbalus) used at any rate to have a very bad 

 name as a fruit- eater, even going so far as to go off 

 with an apple spiked on its bill when leaving the 

 orchard, so says Wilson ; and one has even special- 

 ized in a most peculiar vegetable food, the cambium 

 or inner bark of trees and their sap. This is the 

 Sapsucker (Spbyrapicus varius) of North America, 

 which is often quite a pest by its trick of girdling 

 fruit-trees with its rows of punctures made to ex- 

 tract the sap. The worst of it is that its name and 

 bad reputation have got transferred to other small 

 Woodpeckers ; just as among us the comparatively 

 harmless Kestrel often has to suffer for the misdeeds 

 of the Sparrow-hawk, which really is an inveterate 

 bird-killer, not confining its ravages by any means 

 to Sparrows, but tackling anything from a Blue- tit 

 to a Woodpigeon, so that in its game-list the 

 chicks of Pheasants and Fowls are quite naturally 

 included. 



I have spoken of the specialization of the Wood- 

 pecker's bill for grub-hunting, but this is not very 

 striking at first sight, and the degree to which the 

 tip of the bill is formed like a chisel is somewhat 

 variable ; it is the hardness of texture that is the 

 important point, and the skill of the bird in using 

 its tool. The Great Black W r oodpecker has been 

 seen in captivity to chip two parallel grooves down 



