248 Picidce. 



and furnished with strong curved claws, with which it can cling 

 to the bark : the tail composed of twelve stiff bristly feathers, 

 with very strong shafts, serving the bird as a fulcrum or 

 rest on which to support itself, while bending back the head 

 preparatory to a sharp hammering with the beak; the beak 

 straight, long, tapering, wedge-shaped and immensely strong, in 

 short, an instrument perfectly formed for hammering into the 

 wood of a decayed tree : while the tongue is very long and 

 slender, armed with a horny barbed tip and sharp bristles 

 thereon, and extends to that degree that it is capable of being 

 thrust out to a great length, and withdrawn again through the 

 mandibles when the sharp point has perforated and so secured 

 the insect prey, dislodged from the trunk or laid bare beneath 

 the bark of the tree by the action of the beak : it is also 

 furnished with a glutinous substance exjuding from its surface, to 

 which the smaller insects adhere, and so have no need to be 

 transfixed. Add to these characteristics that the head is large 

 and the body compact and small, and we have before us a 

 structure perfectly fitted for the habits of the Woodpecker race. 

 Members of this family are generally of solitary disposition, 

 seldom associating in flocks; and they are perfectly harmless, 

 never guilty of even the slightest damage to sound or healthy 

 trees (which is a charge frequently, though quite erroneously, 

 brought against them), but always selecting those which are 

 hollow and worthless, and have betrayed to their keen sense 

 unmistakable signs of decay, 



101. GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER (Picus Martius). 



I think myself singularly happy in claiming a specimen of 

 this fine species for Wiltshire, for I have never been able to 

 assent to the verdict of those who have pronounced all the 

 recorded specimens in Great Britain as mistakes or impositions. 

 I cannot, and I do not believe that all our older Ornithologists 

 were so mistaken or deceived ; and on looking over long lists of 

 instances given on what seems to be excellent authority, I feel 



