200 Birds Every Child Should Know 
He is quite a little larger than a robin, the larg- 
est and the commonest of our five non-union 
carpenters. 
See him feeding on the ground instead of on 
the striped and mottled tree trunks, where his 
black and white striped relatives are usually 
found, and you will realise that he wears brown 
clothes, finely barred, because they harmonise 
so perfectly with the brown earth. What does 
he find on the ground that keeps him there so 
much of the time? Look at the spot he has 
just flown from and you will doubtless find ants. 
These are chiefly his diet. Three thousand 
of them, for a single meal, he has been known 
to lick out of a hill with his long, round, 
extensile, sticky tongue. Evidently this lusty 
fellow needs no tonic. His tail, which is 
less rounded than his cousins’, proves that 
he has little need to prop himself against tree 
trunks to pick out a dinner; and his curved 
bill, which is more of a pickaxe than a hammer, 
drill, or chisel, is little used as a carpenter’s tool 
except when a nest is to be dug out of soft, 
decayed wood. Although he can beat a rolling 
tattoo in the spring, he has a variety of call 
notes for use the year through. Did you ever 
see the funny fellow spread his tail and dance 
when he goes courting? Flickers condescend 
to use old holes deserted by their relatives who 
possess better tools. You must have noticed 
