107 
of other birds, what account can be given 
of its form, of its tip? how, in particular, 
did it get its barb, its dentation? These 
barbs, in my opinion, wherever they occur, 
are decisive proofs of mechanical con- 
trivance." 
This bird not only makes small holes in 
trees to procure its food, but also larger 
ones in order to form its nest, and even 
this seemingly arduous task is performed 
with the beak. The hole it makes is as 
perfect a circle as if described by a pair 
of compasses. For the places of nidifi- 
cation the softer woods are attacked, the 
elm, the ash, and particularly the sweet 
chesnut, but rarely the oak. These are 
perforated where they have symptoms of 
decay; and the excavations are frequently 
deep to give security to their eggs. The 
jarring noise, or as some have described 
it, a hoarse laughing noise, so often heard 
in woods during the spring, is considered 
by Ornithologists, as the call to love. 
When the Woodpecker has discovered 
the decayed part of a tree, it fastens its 
claws into the inequalities of the bark, 
