76 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
given him to preserve his own life; just as we kill 
and eat animals to preserve ours.” 
“ He might keep to corn and berries, I should 
think,” ventured Clara. 
44 So might we,” was the reply, 44 but we appear to 
think that we require meat also. Besides, there is 
another view of the matter : ants and other insects 
would soon overrun everything if they had no ene- 
mies ; and I am sure that I know two little girls who 
would raise a terrible outcry if the house and garden 
were full of such creatures. I think, on the whole, 
it will hardly do to find fault with Yellow-Hammer 
on account of his fancy for ants. We are told that 
the tongue of this woodpecker is as wonderfully ar- 
ranged as his bill for demolishing small insects ; as, 
4 like that of other woodpeckers, it is supplied with a 
viscid fluid secreted by two glands that lie under the 
ear on each side, and are at least five times larger in 
this species than in any other of its size : with this 
the tongue is continually moistened, so that every 
small insect it touches instantly adheres to it.’ 
44 The woodpecker is not a domestic bird, as he 
lives principally in the fields and borders of the 
forest, and is seldom seen very near a house. Here 
is a description of a party of them in an old maple 
tree, which, the writer says, 4 year after year afforded 
protection to a brood of yellow-hammers in its de- 
