THE GREEN WOODPECKER. 



claws and tail, as the sailor stops himself by 

 tightening his bent fingers and clinging legs 

 round the cable he is descending. 



But, best of all, I love to watch him 

 tapping after insects. How wise he looks 

 then ! how intent ! how philosophic ! When 

 he suspects a grub, he hammers awhile at 

 the bark ; after which he holds his head 

 most quaintly on one side with a quiet 

 gravity that always reminds me of John 

 Stuart Mill listening, all alert, to an op- 

 ponent's argument, and ready to pounce 

 upon him. If a grub stirs responsive to 

 the tap, tap, tap of his inquiring bill if his 

 delicate ear detects a cavity, as a doctor 

 detects a weak spot in a lung with his 

 prying stethoscope in a second our bird 

 has drilled a hole with that powerful augur, 

 his wedge-shaped beak, has darted out his 

 long and extensile tongue, and has extracted 

 the insect by means of its barbed and 

 bristled tip. The whole of this mechanism, 

 indeed, is one of the most beautiful examples 

 241 R 



