74 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
inches, and his great peculiarity is his bill, an inch 
and a half long, with which he manages to do a great 
deal of work and send terror and destruction into the 
ant-hills that furnish his favorite food. Mrs. Wood- 
pecker is duller in hue, and has no black spots on the 
sides of her throat. 
“ ‘ Early in the month of April the birds begin to 
prepare their nest, which is built in the hollow body 
or branch of a tree at a considerable height from the 
ground. The sagacity of this bird in discovering 
under a sound bark a hollow limb or trunk of a tree, 
and its perseverance in perforating it for the purpose 
of incubation, are truly surprising ; the female and 
male alternately relieving and encouraging each other 
by mutual caresses, renewing their labors for several 
days till the object is attained and the place rendered 
sufficiently capacious, convenient, and secure. On this 
employment they are so extremely intent that they 
may be heard till a very late hour in the evening 
thumping like carpenters. I have seen an instance 
where they had dug first five inches straightforward, 
and then downward more than twice that distance, 
through a solid black oak. They carry in no mate- 
rials for their nest, the soft chips and dust of the 
wood serving for this purpose. The female lays six 
white eggs, almost transparent, very thick at the 
greater end, and tapering suddenly to the other/ 
