LAND BIRDS 



299 



to reach a long distance and to spear the larvae of insects, 

 on which it delights to feed. The birds of this order are poor 

 singers, but good drummers. Everyone has heard the tattoo of 

 the woodpecker on the trunk of an old dead tree. The four to 

 nine eggs are white, and the nest is placed in a hole high up in 

 the tree away from enemies. The young are naked and are 

 reared in the nest (altricial) . There are 350 species distributed 



Fig. 245. — The hairy woodpecker at breakfast. (Biological Survey, 

 U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) 



throughout the wooded districts of the world, except in Madagas- 

 car and Australia. The North American species are not highly 

 migratory, but are represented in the northern parts of their 

 range throughout the year, since they feed largely on the eggs and 

 larvae of boring insects, which they can find all the year. They 

 are of great value. Two-thirds or more of the food of the downy 

 and hairy woodpeckers consists of noxious insects. 



