CHAPTER XVIII 
THE ORDER OF WOODPECKERS 
PICI 
The Woodpeckers are the natural protectors 
of the forests of the temperate zone. But for 
them, tree-borers would multiply without limit, 
and the number of trees that would fall before 
the insect pests is quite beyond computation. 
While the robin, the thrush and the warblers 
take care of the caterpillars and the leaf-insects 
generally, the woodpecker sticks to the business 
of his own guild, and looks after the pests that 
attack the bark and the wood. The tree-creep- 
ers assist by picking off insects from the outside, 
but when it comes to the heavy work of digging 
borers out of the bark by main strength, the 
woodpecker is the only bird equal to it. 
There are about twenty-five species of wood- 
peckers in the United States. 
Usually, the long, barbed tongue of this bird 
is sufficient to spear a borer, and drag it forth 
to meet the death it deserves. When this will 
not do the work, the woodpecker’s claws take 
a good grip on the bark, and serious work be- 
gins. 
Do not think, however, that because a rolling 
tattoo beaten on a hard dead limb can be heard 
a quarter of a mile, that the bird making the 
noise is working unusually hard. Quite the con- 
trary. The loud tattoo is a signal, like the 
certain whistle ” of a small boy. In our Beaver 
Pond, the golden-winged woodpeckers some- 
times beat on the galvanized-iron drums which 
protect the bases of the trees from the teeth of 
the beavers. 
When a woodpecker is working hardest, you 
hear only a faint “chuck! chuck! chuck!” as 
he drives his sharp, wedge-like beak into the 
bark, or soft wood. Often the falling chips are 
your first notice that a winged forester is at work 
aloft, digging out and devouring the larvae that, 
if left alone, bring decay and death to trees. 
You may be sure that whenever you find one 
of these valuable birds at work, there is need for 
him. To-day, a great many persons know their 
value, and protect them. Occasionally, how- 
ever, men who are so thoughtless or so mean as 
to engage in the brutal pastime known as a “side 
hunt,” do lower themselves, and injure the land- 
owners about them, by killing every woodpecker 
that can be found, — for “points.” If all farm- 
ers only knew what a loss every “side hunt” 
means to them, such wicked pastimes would not 
be tolerated. 
Although the woodpeckers are not counted 
as birds of song, to me the loud, joyous cry of 
the flicker, the downy and the red-head, ringing 
through the leafy forest aisles, is genuine music. 
One species cries “Cheer-wp\ Cheer- up!” and it 
cheers-up and thrills me to hear it. Even in 
summer, when other birds are plentiful, it is a 
welcome sound. In bleak winter, when the 
great bulk of bird-life has vanished southward, 
and you toilsomely tread the silent forest, ankle- 
deep in snow, the world seems lifeless and drear — - 
until you hear the clarion greeting of the golden- 
winged woodpecker. It is enough to stir the 
soul of a Digger Indian with a pleasing sense of 
companionship in life. 
It is only the children of the cities who need 
to be told that woodpeckers have two toes in 
front and two behind, to enable them to cling 
to tree-bark; that the natural perch of such a 
bird is the perpendicular trunk of a tree; that 
sometimes they store acorns in holes which they 
dig in the sides of decayed trees, not in order that 
worms in those acorns may develop, but in order 
to eat the acorns themselves. They nest high 
up in hollow tree-trunks, which they enter through 
round holes of their own making . 1 
1 Those who are specially interested in the habits 
of woodpeckers may profitably consult a report on 
“ The Food of Woodpeckers ” by Prof. F. E. L. Beal, 
published by the Department of Agriculture in 1895. 
The exact proportions of the various kinds of food 
consumed by seven species have been determined by 
examination of the stomachs of several hundred 
birds, and the figures quoted later on are from that 
report. 
