CARPENTERS IN FEATHERS 159 



which differs from its rapidly repeated, mellow, and musi- 

 cal cuh, cuh, cuh, cuk, cuh, and the rolling tattoo of the 

 nesting season. Its nasal kee-yer, vigorously called out 

 in the autumn, is less characteristic, however, than the 

 sound it makes while associating with its fellows — a sound 

 that may be closely imitated by the swishing of a switch. 

 Yar-up is another call. 



See the flicker feeding on the ground instead of on the 

 striped and mottled tree trunks, where its black and 

 white striped relatives are usually found, and you will 

 realize that it wears brown clothes, finely barred, because 

 they harmonize so perfectly with the brown earth. What 

 does it find on the ground that keeps it there so much of the 

 time? Look at the spot it has just flown from and you 

 wUl doubtless find ants. These are its chief diet. Three 

 thousand of them, for a single meal, it has been known to 

 lick out of a hill with its long, round, extensile, sticky 

 tongue. But it Kkes acorns, too. Evidently this lusty 

 woodpecker needs no tonic. Its tail, which is less rounded 

 than its cousins', proves that it has httle need to prop 

 itself against tree trunks to pick out a dinner; and its 

 curved bill, which is more of a pickaxe than a hammer, 

 drill, or chisel, is little used as a carpenter's tool except 

 when a high hole is to be dug out of soft, decayed wood 

 for a nest and winter home. The funny fellow spreads 

 his tail and dances when he goes a-courting. 



Flickers condescend to use old holes deserted by their 

 relatives who possess better tools. You must have 

 noticed all through these bird biographies that the struc- 

 ture and coloring of every bird are adapted to its kind of 

 life, each member of the same family varying according to 

 its habits. The kind of food a bird eats and its method of 



