116 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
Scarcely less beautiful, in their way, are 
the GREATER and LESSER SPOTTED Woop- 
PECKERS. The plumage of these birds has a 
very rich effect, steely blue-black and white being 
contrasted with scarlet. 
The SPOTTED and BLACK WOODPECKERS 
are remarkable for a curious drumming sound, so 
powerful as to be distinctly audible even a mile 
off. It appears to be caused by hammering 
vigorously on the bark of some rotten branch, 
the bird’s head moving with amazing rapidity 
as it beats out this curious tattoo. 
Three North American species, known as 
SAP-SUCKERS, have the curious habit of piercing 
the boles of trees for the purpose of procuring 
the sap which flows copiously when the tree is 
so “tapped.” Another species of the same region 
seems to be possessed of a persistent dread of 
famine, storing up immense quantities of nuts, 
which it appears never afterwards to use. These 
nuts are tightly fixed into holes in the bark 
of trees, and in such numbers that “a large 
pine 40 or 50 feet high will present the appear- 
Fhoto by W. F. Piggott] (Leighton Buxccard ance of being closely studded with brass nails, 
GREATER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS the heads only being visible.” 
Ons of the members af the group i usiog test tail feathers ata The WRYNECKS differ from the Woodpeckers 
support 
mainly in that the tail-feathers are soft instead 
of spiny. Although sombre, the plumage is yet very beautiful, having a velvety appearance, 
variegated with pearl-grey, powdered or dusted over a general groundwork of nut-brown, buff, 
and grey. Bars and fine lines add still more to the general effect, and render description 
still more difficult. One species is common in England. It is known also as the CUCKOO’Ss 
MATE and the SNAKE-BIRD, The former name is given in allusion to the fact that it arrives 
with the cuckoo, the latter from its strange habit of writhing its head and neck, and also on 
account of its curious hissing note, made when disturbed on its nest. It has the long, worm- 
like tongue of the woodpecker, but without a barbed tip. 
The habit of writhing the head and neck often serves the wryneck in good stead. Nesting 
in a hole in a tree, escape is difficult so soon as the discoverer has come to close quarters. 
The untried egg-collector, for instance, peering down into the nest, and seeing nothing distinctly, 
but only a moving head, and hearing a hissing sound, imagines the hole to be tenanted bya 
snake, and beats a hasty retreat, only to catch a glimpse, a moment later, of the bird hurrying 
out of its perilous hiding-place. Should he, however, discovering the true state of affairs, put 
down his hand and seize the bird, it will adopt yet other resources, Clinging tightly to its 
captor’s finger, it will ruffle up its feathers, stretch out its neck, and at the same time move 
it jerkily and stiffly about, and finally, closing its eyes, hang downwards, as if dead. Then, 
before the puzzled captor has had time to realise what has happened, it loosens its hold and 
takes instant flight. 
The young are easily, though rarely, tamed, and form extremely interesting pets, feeding 
readily from the hand, and affording endless amusement by their remarkable manner of 
capturing flies and other insects; but they do not appear to live long in confinement. 
The wryneck is one of the few birds which will persistently go on laying eggs, no matter 
how many times they may be stolen from the nest. A case is on record where as many as 
forty-two were laid in a single summer by one bird—an exceedingly cruel experiment. 
