THE WOODPECKERS. 
131 
lakes, and mill-ponds, especially where a clayey or 
gravelly bank rises to some height above the water’s 
edge ; here the male and female assist each other in 
digging out a hole, running horizontally to the depth 
of four or five feet, and about one or two feet below 
the surface of the ground. This hole, which is just 
large enough to admit the body of the bird, is widened 
toward the extremity into an oven-shaped apartment, 
of sufficient size to allow of the birds turning freely 
about; here the nest, which is composed of a few 
sticks and feathers, is placed. The female mostly 
lays six pure white eggs, which she hatches in about 
sixteen days, the male taking his turn with his mate 
in the process of incubation. To this hole the same 
pair will sometimes resort for many successive years. 
We will now endeavor briefly to describe some of 
the most prominent and familiar members of the in- 
teresting, numerous, and widely spread family of the 
Woodpeckers. With them commences the fourth 
order, Scansores or Zygodactyli, the Climbers. If 
we examine closely, we will find that the peculiarities 
of conformation of this order are very marked, and 
display in a wonderful degree the wisdom of the Crea- 
tor in supplying His creatures with means precisely 
adapted to their wants. The food of the Woodpecker 
consists principally of insects and their eggs, which 
are deposited beneath the bark of decayed trees. In 
order to obtain these, it is gifted with a large, heavy 
looking, hammer-shaped head, and rather a long, 
sharp-pointed, and powerful bill, with which it strips 
away the bark by repeated blows, until it has uncov- 
