408 
THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 
now arrive at the true Woodpeckers, several species of which bird are familiar from 
their frequent occurrence in this country. 
As is well known, the name of Woodpecker is given to these birds from their habit of 
pecking among the decaying wood of trees in order to feed upon the insects that are found 
within. They also chip away the wood for the purpose of making the holes or tunnels 
wherein their eggs are deposited. In order to enable them to perform these duties, the 
structure of the Woodpecker is very curiously modified. The feet are made extremely 
powerful, and the claws are strong and sharply hooked, so that the bird can retain a firm 
hold of the tree to which it is clinging while it works away at the bark or wood with its bill. 
The tail, too, is furnished with very stiff and pointed feathers, which are pressed against the 
bark, and form a kind of support on which the bird can rest a large proportion of its weight. 
The breast-bone is not so prominent as in the generality of flying birds, in order to enable the 
Woodpecker to press its breast closely to the tree, and the beak is long, strong and sharp. 
These modifications aid the bird in cutting away the wood, but there is yet a provision 
needful to render the Woodpecker capable of seizing the little insects on which it feeds, and 
which lurk in small holes and 
crannies into which the beak 
of the Woodpecker could not 
penetrate. This structure is 
shown by the accompanying 
sketch of a Woodpecker’s 
head dissected. The tongue- 
bones or “ hyoid” bones are 
greatly lengthened, and pass 
over the top of the head, 
being fastened in the skull 
Just above the right nostril. These long tendinous-looking bones are accompanied by a 
narrow strip of muscle by which they are moved. 
The tongue is furnished at the tip with a long horny appendage covered with barbs and 
sharply pointed at the extremity, so that the bird is enabled to project this instrument to a 
considerable distance from the bill, transfix an insect, and draw it into the mouth. Those 
insects that are too small to be thus treated are captured by means of a glutinous liquid 
poured upon the tongue from certain glands within the mouth, and which cause the little 
insects to adhere to the weapon suddenly projected among them. This whole arrangement is 
clearly analagous to the tongue of the ant-eater, described in the volume on Mammalia. Some 
authors deny the transfixion. 
The Great Spotted Woodpecker is also known by the names of Frenchpie and 
W oodpie. 
Like the other Woodpeckers, it must be sought in the forests and woods rather than in 
orchards and gardens. Like other shy birds, however, it soon finds out where it may take 
up its abode unmolested, and will occasionally make its nest in some cultivated ground, where 
it has the instinctive assurance of safety, rather than entrust itself to the uncertain security 
of the forest. 
In the woods frequented by these birds, which are often more plentiful than is generally 
known, the careful observer may watch their movements without difficulty, by taking a few 
preliminary precautions. 
The rapid series of strokes on the bark, something like the sound of a watchman’s rattle, 
will indicate the direction in which the bird is working ; and when the intruding observer has 
drawn near the tree on which he suspects the Woodpecker to have settled, he should quietly 
sit or lie down, without moving. At first the bird will not be visible, for the W oodpeckers, 
like the squirrels, have a natural tact for keeping the tree-trunk or branch between themselves 
and the supposed enemy, and will not show themselves until they think that the danger has 
passed away. 
