AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 179' 



The vegetable food of the Redhead presents considerable variety — 

 dogwood berries, huckleberries, strawberries, wild and cultivated cher- 

 ries and raspberries, mullberries, wild grapes, apples, pears, etc.. His 

 miscellaneous food consists of sumac seeds, ragweed, pigweed and 

 other seeds, including acorns, galls, and flower anthers. 



Of course it is always necessary to bear in mind that the food of a 

 bird necessarily varies with the season, and consequently the peculiarity 

 of the tongue is related to some special kind of food, or particular 

 method of obtaining it, pursued during the changing seasons of the 

 year. 



The woodpecker's tongue is wonderfully constructed for securing 

 food at all times. The front or. horny portion of the tongue is armed 

 on either side with backwardly directed hair-like spines while the 

 smooth bony surface of the tongue is coated with a glue-like saliva to 

 which ants and other insects behind the bark will readily adhere. 



Another attachment which the woodpecker has to his tongue, which 

 gives it an extraordinary length when he wants to get an insect which 

 is nearly out of his reach is what is called the hyoid — a Y-shaped soft, 

 flexible bony structure which curves up over the back of the skull and, 

 continues on towards the forehead. 



When I was a young lad I used to shoot woodpeckers with the rest 

 of the bad boj^^s and we always wondered why we could pull their 

 tongues out so far, for we could never get hold of the tongues of other 

 species which we happened to kill. But now I know it all — perhaps I 

 do? In the month of June, at half past three in the morning by Nat- 

 ure's standard time — before the eastern horizon is streaked with golden 

 red and purple — when the first zephyrs begin to blow — when the faint 

 rustling of the leaves, now wet with dew, sound like the rippling of run- 

 ning waters — when the squawk of the heroni s distinctly heard over-head, 

 I have listened to him gently tapping on the hollow trunk along the 

 river bank, apparently trying to arouse his mate from her unseason- 

 able slumber. 



In the days of June strange sights may be seen and weird sounds 

 may be heard in the temple of nature. 



The splash of some fish is heard on the surface of the little stream 

 as if rising from the shallow depths to catch a breath of the fresh morn- 

 ing air; farther above, like a lot of truant boys we can hear the plung- 

 ing and diving of a family of musk-rats as they come from their mud 

 cavern along the banks. Back in the woods the Oven-bird is emerging 

 from its dome-shaped nest, by the side of a fallen log uttering its em- 

 phatic, startling song, while on the edge of the woods bob-white re- 



