Miners, Diggers, and Carpenters. 



title of carpenter than miner, although it is a dark tunnel 

 that he drives into the tree. His cheery, laughing cry 

 is a familiar sound to most lovers of our woodlands, 

 especially in changeable weather, and it is his ringing 

 call heard so constantly when rain is approaching that 

 has gained for him his two old country names. In 

 form he is wonderfully adapted to his method of life : 

 his beak is a veritable straight, strong pickaxe mounted 

 on a suitably large and lengthy head, while his legs 

 are set far back, so as to give ample swing to the pick- 

 axe, and the short, strong, spiky tail gives additional 

 support and grip. It is not surprising, therefore, to 

 find that the Woodpecker is able to drive the tunnel 

 leading to its nest deep into the sound heart of a tree ; 

 while with the greatest ease its powerful beak is able to 

 split and tear the dead wood and bark in the search 

 for the insects upon which the bird feeds. It is generally 

 somewhere about the middle of April that the Wood- 

 pecker begins to bore a hole for its nest. First a neat 

 round hole is drilled horizontally into the middle of the 

 tree trunk or limb, the opening being about two and 

 a half inches in diameter. This completed, the Wood- 

 pecker begins to drive its shaft perpendicularly down- 

 wards for a depth of about two feet, where it makes a 

 slightly enlarged chamber, and here the hen bird lays 

 her glossy, pure white eggs on the bare wood, no attempt 

 whatever being made to line the interior of the nest 

 chamber. Although the Woodpecker sometimes takes 

 advantage of rotten wood in a tree for boring its hole, 

 such aid is by no means necessary ; and while the bird 

 undoubtedly does good service in hunting out and 

 devouring large numbers of wood-boring insects, it 



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