A Fellow of Expedients. 153 



for himself a much easier way. One now frequently 

 surprises him on the ground in old pastures and 

 orchards, floundering about rather awkwardly (for his 

 little feet were never intended for walking) after the 

 crickets and grasshoppers that abound there. Still 

 he finds the work of catching them much easier than 

 boring into dry old trees, and the insects themselves 

 much larger and more satisfactory. 



A single glance will show how much this new way 

 of living has changed him from the other wood- 

 peckers. The bill is no longer straight, but has a 

 decided curve, like the thrushes ; and instead of the 

 chisel-shaped edge there is a rounded point. The 

 red tuft on the head, which marks all the woodpecker 

 family, would be too conspicuous on the ground. In 

 its place we find a red crescent well down on the neck, 

 and partially hidden by the short gray feathers about 

 it. The point of the tongue is less horny, and from 

 the stiff points of the tail-feathers laminae are begin- 

 ning to grow, making them more like other birds'. 

 A future generation will undoubtedly wonder where 

 this peculiar kind of thrush got his unusual tongue 

 and tail, just as we wonder at the deformed little feet 

 and strange ways of a cuckoo. 



The habits of this bird arc a curious compound of 

 his old life in the woods and his new preference for 

 the open fields and farms. Sometimes the nest is in 



