32 1 Benefits which Gardens 



and may be heard at as great a distance. Woodpeckers are never 

 seen to perch on the horizontal arm or branch of a tree, but 

 invariably upon the bole, clinging to the bark in an erect pos- 

 ture, for which their scansor feet, having two claws before 

 and two behind, are admirably adapted. The tail, which is 

 short and stiff, answers the purpose of a third foot, as it is 

 always pressed close to the tree, and acts as a prop to the 

 body. 



In this position they seek their insect food, examining every 

 crack and crevice of the bark, and particularly every rotten or 

 defective part, where the eggs of wood-eating insects have been 

 deposited ; and either dig them out with their strong conical 

 bills ; or, if the larvae, when hatched, eat their way inwards, 

 the long flexible tongue of the bird is thrust in after the 

 maggots, and draws them forth with the utmost certainty. 



Their tongue is a most wonderful organ, the mechanism of 

 which consists of a series of cartilaginous rings, largest at the 

 root or base, and gradually smaller outwards; so that, when 

 drawn in within the mandibles, it is not above an inch in length. 

 When necessary, however, to probe a worm-hole, the bird can 

 project it outwards to the length of 5 in. or more, to reach a 

 worm. The tip, for about half an inch, is formed like a shal- 

 low spoon, furnished with short stiff bristles, which lean back- 

 wards from the point, and which must withdraw every small 

 body or maggot that is taken upon it. The retractive and 

 projective powers of this organ, like those of the proboscis of an 

 elephant, are so admirably adapted for procuring the natural 

 food of the bird, that, without such an instrument, they could 

 neither provide for themselves nor their young. In the winter, 

 indeed, they are sometimes seen on the ground under trees, 

 tossing the fallen leaves about in search of insects; but they 

 get most of their subsistence about old decayed trees. 



The grand crime alleged against the woodpeckers is, that 

 they bore into sound timber; but this is a gr«nc? mistake. They 

 sometimes chisel out a piece of sound-looking bark, to find the 

 larvae of the Sc61ytus destructor ; but it is a pretty sure sign 

 that insects are present, if the oeills (as the birds are called in 

 the country) have begun to break the bark. I have often 

 thought that the reason these insects are less prevalent and 

 less destructive in the open country, than they are in public 

 avenues or malls, is because the wookpeckers have a free range 

 in the one, and are constantly scared away in the other. If 

 there is any probability in this supposition, it is a valid argu- 

 ment in favour of this genus of birds, and a strong plea against 

 their destruction. 



It has been already observed that they nestle and rear 

 their young in hollow trunks of trees ; and it is with admirable 



