42 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



The birds that have hitherto been mentioned are either bur- 

 rowers into the earth, or adopters of burrows which have been 

 made and deserted by fossorial mammaha. Those which now 

 come before us are burrowers into wood, and either form their 

 tunnels with their own beaks, or adapt to their purposes the 

 excavations made by other creatures, and the hollows formed 

 by natural decay. 



The first in order of these birds are necessarily the Wood- 

 peckers, examples of which are found in most parts of the 

 world. They are easily distinguished from any other birds by 

 the peculiar construction of the beak, the feet, and the tail; the 

 beak enabling them to chip away the bark and wood, the feet 

 giving them the power of clinging to the tree-trunk, and the tail 

 helping to support them in the attitude which gives to their 

 strokes the greatest force. Their beaks are long, powerful, 

 straight and pointed; their feet are formed for grasping, and 

 are set far back upon the body ; and their tails are short and 

 stiff, and act as props when pressed against the rough bark. 



As is well known, this bird makes its nest in a tunnel which 

 it hollows in the tree, and to a superficial observer might easily 

 be reckoned among the enemies of the forest. If it were to 

 burrow into sound timber, as is often supposed to be the case, 

 it would certainly rank among the deadliest foes of our trees ; 

 for in the spots where it still resides, its burrows may be seen 

 in plenty, perforating the trunks and branches of the finest and 

 most picturesque trees. But, in point of fact, none of the 

 British Woodpeckers are able to cut so deep a tunnel into 

 sound and growing wood, and are perforce obliged to choose 

 timber which is already dead, and which has begun to decay. 



Sometimes the bird selects a spot where a branch has been 

 blown down, leaving a hollow in which the rain has lodged and 

 eaten its way deeply into the stem. In such places the wood 

 is so soft that it can 'be broken away with the fingers, or scraped 

 out with a stick ; and in many a noble tree, which seems to the 

 eye to be perfectly sound, the very heart-wood is being slowly 

 dissolved by the action of water, which has gained access 

 ihrough some unsuspected hole. Water, when thus admitted 



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