THE WOODPECKERS 221 



through one or two less-known families to the highly-interesting 

 Humming-birds. The Swifts follow, as they show an actual re- 

 lationship to the Humming-birds, which in turn are connected 

 with the Nightjars, and so introduce us to them. 



From the Nightjars we pass through West Indian Todies and 

 American Motmots and Bee-eaters, to the Hoopoes; and then 

 through the Hornbills we come to the beautiful group of King- 

 fishers and the peculiar Madagascar Frog-mouths. 



THE WOODPECKERS (Family PiciD^) 



The Woodpeckers form a connecting link between the Passeres 

 and the Picarise. There are a good many species distributed over 

 both the Old and the New World. 



Probably few of us have ever seen a Woodpecker alive. We 

 may pass again and again through a wood in which the bird is 

 quite common, and possibly not catch sight of it. For it is a 

 very shy bird indeed, and is always very careful to keep well 

 hidden from view. 



But if we sit down under a bush, or against a tree-trunk, and 

 remain for a few minutes motionless, a woodpecker may come 

 quite near, and we may be able to watch it at work. 



What is its work? Catching insects. Not butterflies, moths, 

 and bees, which it might find flying about; it does not care for 

 these. The insects for which it searches are those which bore 

 into the bark and the wood of trees. 



If you could examine a woodpecker you would see how well 

 it is able to seek for and capture the insects. 



You would notice, in the first place, its strong, sharp beak. 

 This beak is a kind of natural chisel; and when the woodpecker 

 finds an insect in its burrow, it can quickly chip and cut away the 

 wood round it by a few strokes of its bill. 



Being made of horn, however, and not of steel, it is not brittle 

 like a chisel ; and if an insect should have taken refuge underneath 

 the bark, the bird can prise up the bark, just as a carpenter would 

 do with a strong screw-driver. 



