of 



swipe with his bill, probably to tear out a splin- 

 ter or throw off a chip. In six minutes his prey 

 was evidently in sight. Then he enlarged the 

 hole and slightly deepened it vertically. Paus- 

 ing, he thrust his head into the hole and his bill 

 into a cavity beyond. With a backward tug he 

 pulled his head out, then his bill, and at last 

 his extended tongue with a grub impaled on its 

 barbed point. This grub was dragged from the 

 bottom of a crooked gallery at a point more than 

 three inches beyond the bottom of the pecked 

 hole. A useful bread-getting tool, this tongue of 

 his, a flexible, extensible spear. 



In another tree he uncovered a feast of ants 

 and their eggs. Once a grasshopper alighted 

 against another tree-trunk up which he was 

 climbing. Downy seized him instantly. In one 

 tree- top he consumed an entire tent-caterpillar 

 colony. In four hours he examined the trunks, 

 larger limbs, and many of the smaller ones of one 

 hundred and thirty-eight apple trees. In this 

 time he made twenty-two excavations, five of 

 which were large ones. Among the insects de- 

 voured were beetles, ants, their eggs and their 



202 



