316 GREEN WOODPECKER. Class II. 



give from the observations of our illustrious 

 countryman Mr. Ray* 



These birds feed entirely on insects, and 

 their principal action is that of climbing up and 

 down the bodies or boughs of trees ; for the first 

 purpose they are provided with a long slender 

 tongue, armed with a sharp bony end barbed on 

 each side, which by the means of a curious ap- 

 paratus ofmusclesf they can exert at pleasure, 

 darting it to a great length into the clefts of the 

 bark, transfixing and drawing out the insects 

 that lurk there. They are reckoned great ene- 

 mies to bees according to Frisch. 

 Nest. They make their nests in the hollows of trees : 



the entrance to which is as exact a circle, as if 

 it had been formed by the assistance of a com- 

 pass. They will work their way for the space 

 of nearly t^'o feet, and lay their eggs, in the 

 chamber at the extremity on the bare wood. 

 The number of their eggs, which are of a beau- 

 tiful transparent white, amounts to seven at lest, 

 for I have seen so many of their young taken 

 out of a single nest; this was on June 12, 

 1794. They will, before they can fly, appear 

 out of their hollows, and climb up and down the 



* Ray on the Creation, p. 143. 



f Phil. Trans. Martin s abridg. V, p. 55. plate 2. 



