158 BOMBAY DUCKS 
most birds; this, also, is an adaptation to its scansorial 
habits, 
Lastly, the bird’s feet are admirably adapted to climb- 
ing. Its claws enable it to cling without effort to the 
smoothest bark. Some woodpeckers have four toes; 
our friend with the golden back has but three, nor does 
the loss of one appear in any way to interfere with its 
powers of locomotion. It can run up the stem of a 
toddy palm as easily as a human being can walk across 
the road. 
The woodpecker is a tree-trunk acrobat. The bird 
adopts a unique method of progression; it moves ina 
series of jerks, just as a mechanical toy does, except 
that the movements of a woodpecker are as silent as the 
flight of a bat or an owl. Head, tail, and legs all work 
together, and jerk the bird whither it listeth. It usually 
progresses with its head pointing upwards, and can 
move with equal ease upwards, downwards, sideways, 
and in a straight line or spirally. The agility of the 
bird baffles description. It moves as though there were 
no such thing as gravity. 
For gymnastic prowess, a woodpecker I saw the other 
day “fairly takes the cake.” I was out one morning 
after a night of heavy rain and beheld a woodpecker 
disporting himself in the angle formed by the forked 
trunk of an old tree. The bird was dancing up and 
down like a jack-in-the-box, flirting his wings with each 
movement. I turned my glasses on to him and saw 
drops of water flying every time he shook his wings. 
The bird was taking a bath in the water that had 
collected in the hollow formed by the bifurcation of the 
