66 Bird Life Stories 



He remained fully thirty minutes on the same tree, where he 

 evidently found an abundance of food, and then flew off 

 uttering several loud notes like huip, Jntip. His ordinary call 

 sounds like triii, triii, a shrill rattling note. 



The tongue of the majority of our Woodpeckers is 

 especially adapted for extracting larvae, etc., from the wood 

 in which they live. The tongue proper is rather small, flat, 

 and terminates in a sharp, horny point, which is armed at the 

 sides with a series of bristle-like barbed hooks. The worm- 

 like neck, or the hyoid process to which it is attached, is gener- 

 ally rather long and curves around the back of the skull in a 

 sheath, and this can readily be thrown forward for two or 

 three inches. A sticky saliva is also secreted, with which the 

 tongue is covered to facilitate the extraction of the food of 

 which they are in search. 



Their sense of hearing must be exceedingly acute, as they 

 appear to detect readily the slightest movement of any insect 

 under the bark or in the solid wood, and they make no 

 mistakes in properly locating it. Their flight is rapid, undu- 

 lating, usually not very protracted, and they rarely descend to 

 the ground in search of food, where their movements are 

 rather awkward and clumsy. 



Nidification usually begins early in April, and it requires 

 about a week to prepare the nesting site. Both sexes take 

 part in this labor, and it is really wonderful how neat and 

 smooth an excavation these birds can make with their chisel- 

 shaped bills in a comparatively short time. The entrance 

 hole is as round as if made with an auger, about two inches in 

 diameter, and just large enough to admit the body of the 

 bird; the edges are nicely beveled, the inside is equally 

 smooth, and the cavity is gradually enlarged toward the 

 bottom. The entrance hole, which is not unfrequently placed 



