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[Illustration]




      THE WOODPECKERS

             BY

    FANNIE HARDY ECKSTORM

      WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

[Illustration]

        BOSTON AND NEW YORK
    HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
    The Riverside Press, Cambridge
               1901




COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY FANNIE HARDY ECKSTORM

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_To_ MY FATHER MR. MANLY HARDY _A Lifelong Naturalist_




CONTENTS


    CHAP.                                               PAGE

          FOREWORD: THE RIDDLERS                           1

       I. HOW TO KNOW A WOODPECKER                         4

      II. HOW THE WOODPECKER CATCHES A GRUB                9

     III. HOW THE WOODPECKER COURTS HIS MATE              15

      IV. HOW THE WOODPECKER MAKES A HOUSE                20

       V. HOW A FLICKER FEEDS HER YOUNG                   24

      VI. FRIEND DOWNY                                    28

     VII. PERSONA NON GRATA. (YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER)   33

    VIII. EL CARPINTERO. (CALIFORNIAN WOODPECKER)         46

      IX. A RED-HEADED COUSIN. (RED-HEADED WOODPECKER)    55

       X. A STUDY OF ACQUIRED HABITS                      60

      XI. THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS: HIS BILL                68

     XII. THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS: HIS FOOT                77

    XIII. THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS: HIS TAIL                86

     XIV. THE WOODPECKER'S TOOLS: HIS TONGUE              99

      XV. HOW EACH WOODPECKER IS FITTED FOR HIS OWN
                               KIND OF LIFE              104

     XVI. THE ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN                       110

    APPENDIX                                             113

       A. KEY TO THE WOODPECKERS OF NORTH AMERICA        114

       B. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE WOODPECKERS OF
                               NORTH AMERICA             117




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                        PAGE

    Flicker ()                         _Frontispiece_

    Boring Larva                                          10

    Indian Spear                                          12

    Solomon Islander's Spear                              13

    Downy Woodpecker ()                   _facing_ 28

    Bark showing Work of Sapsucker                        34

    Yellow-bellied Sapsucker ()           _facing_ 34

    Trunk of Tree showing Work of Californian Woodpecker  47

    Californian Woodpecker ()             _facing_ 48

    Red-headed Woodpecker ()              _facing_ 56

    Head of the Lewis's Woodpecker                        59

    Head of Ivory-billed Woodpecker                       70

    Foot of Woodpecker                                    77

    Diagram of Right Foot                                 79

    Foot of Three-toed Woodpecker                         80

    Tail of Hairy Woodpecker                              86

    Tails of Brown Creeper and Chimney Swift              87

    Middle Tail Feathers of Flicker, Ivory-billed
             Woodpecker, and Hairy Woodpecker             89

    Diagram of Curvature of Tails of Woodpeckers          90

    Patterns of Tails                                     91

    Under Side of Middle Tail Feather of
             Ivory-billed Woodpecker                      97

    Tongue of Hairy Woodpecker                            99

    Tongue-bones of Flicker                              100

    Skull of Woodpecker, showing Bones of Tongue         101

    Hyoids of Sapsucker and Golden-fronted Woodpecker    102

    Diagram of Head of a Flicker                         113

_The  illustrations are by Louis Agassiz Fuertes.
 The text cuts are from drawings by John L. Ridgway._




THE WOODPECKERS




FOREWORD: THE RIDDLERS


Long ago in Greece, the legend runs, a terrible monster called the
Sphinx used to waylay travelers to ask them riddles: whoever could not
answer these she killed, but the man who did answer them killed her and
made an end of her riddling.

To-day there is no Sphinx to fear, yet the world is full of unguessed
riddles. No thoughtful man can go far afield but some bird or flower or
stone bars his way with a question demanding an answer; and though many
men have been diligently spelling out the answers for many years, and we
for the most part must study the answers they have proved, and must
reply in their words, yet those shrewd old riddlers, the birds and
flowers and bees, are always ready for a new victim, putting their heads
together over some new enigma to bar the road to knowledge till that,
too, shall be answered; so that other men's learning does not always
suffice. So much of a man's pleasure in life, so much of his power,
depends on his ability to silence these persistent questioners, that
this little book was written with the hope of making clearer the kind of
questions Dame Nature asks, and the way to get correct answers.

This is purposely a _little_ book, dealing only with a single group of
birds, treating particularly only some of the commoner species of that
group, taking up only a few of the problems that present themselves to
the naturalist for solution, and aiming rather to make the reader
_acquainted with_ the birds than _learned about_ them.

The woodpeckers were selected in preference to any other family because
they are patient under observation, easily identified, resident in all
parts of the country both in summer and in winter, and because more than
any other birds they leave behind them records of their work which may
be studied after the birds have flown. The book provides ample means for
identifying every species and subspecies of woodpecker known in North
America, though only five of the commonest and most interesting species
have been selected for special study. At least three of these five
should be found in almost every part of the country. The Californian
woodpecker is never seen in the East, nor the red-headed in the far
West, but the downy and the hairy are resident nearly everywhere, and
some species of the flickers and sapsuckers, if not always the ones
chosen for special notice, are visitors in most localities.

Look for the woodpeckers in orchards and along the edges of thickets,
among tangles of wild grapes and in patches of low, wild berries, upon
which they often feed, among dead trees and in the track of forest
fires. Wherever there are boring larvae, beetles, ants, grasshoppers, the
fruit of poison-ivy, dogwood, june-berry, wild cherry or wild grapes,
woodpeckers may be confidently looked for if there are any in the
neighborhood. Be patient, persistent, wide-awake, sure that you see what
you think you see, careful to remember what you have seen, studious to
compare your observations, and keen to hear the questions propounded
you. If you do this seven years and a day, you will earn the name of
Naturalist; and if you travel the road of the naturalist with curious
patience, you may some day become as famous a riddle-reader as was that
Oedipus, the king of Thebes, who slew the Sphinx.




I

HOW TO KNOW A WOODPECKER


The woodpecker is the easiest of all birds to recognize. Even if
entirely new to you, you may readily decide whether a bird is a
woodpecker or not.

The woodpecker is always striking and is often gay in color. He is
usually noisy, and his note is clear and characteristic. His shape and
habits are peculiar, so that whenever you see a bird clinging to the
side of a tree "as if he had been thrown at it and stuck," you may
safely call him a woodpecker. Not that all birds which cling to the bark
of trees are woodpeckers,--for the chickadees, the crested titmice, the
nuthatches, the brown creepers, and a few others like the kinglets and
some wrens and wood-warblers more or less habitually climb up and down
the tree-trunks; but these do it with a pretty grace wholly unlike the
woodpecker's awkward, cling-fast way of holding on. As the largest of
these is smaller than the smallest woodpecker, and as none of them
(excepting only the tiny kinglets) ever shows the patch of yellow or
scarlet which always marks the head of the male woodpecker, and which
sometimes adorns his mate, there is no danger of making mistakes.

The nuthatches are the only birds likely to be confused with
woodpeckers, and these have the peculiar habit of traveling down a
tree-trunk with their heads pointing to the ground. A woodpecker never
does this; he may move down the trunk of the tree he is working on, but
he will do it by hopping backward. A still surer sign of the woodpecker
is the way he sits upon his tail, using it to brace him. No other birds
except the chimney swift and the little brown creeper ever do this. A
sure mark, also, is his feet, which have two toes turned forward and two
turned backward. We find this arrangement in no other North American
birds except the cuckoos and our one native parroquet. However, there is
one small group of woodpeckers which have but three toes, and these are
the only North American land-birds that do not have four well-developed
toes.

In coloration the woodpeckers show a strong family likeness. Except in
some young birds, the color is always brilliant and often is gaudy.
Usually it shows much clear black and white, with dashes of scarlet or
yellow about the head. Sometimes the colors are "solid," as in the
red-headed woodpecker; sometimes they lie in close bars, as in the
red-bellied species; sometimes in spots and stripes, as in the downy and
hairy; but there is always a _contrast_, never any blending of hues. The
red or yellow is laid on in well-defined patches--square, oblong, or
crescentic--upon the crown, the nape, the jaws, or the throat; or else
in stripes or streaks down the sides of the head and neck, as in the
logcock, or pileated woodpecker.

There is no rule about the color markings of the sexes, as in some
families of birds. Usually the female lacks all the bright markings of
the male; sometimes, as in the logcock, she has them but in more
restricted areas; sometimes, as in the flickers, she has all but one of
the male's color patches; and in a few species, as the red-headed and
Lewis's woodpeckers, the two sexes are precisely alike in color. In the
black-breasted woodpecker, sometimes called Williamson's sapsucker, the
male and female are so totally different that they were long described
and named as different birds. It sometimes happens that a young female
will show the color marks of the male, but will retain them only the
first year.

Though the woodpeckers cling to the trunks of trees, they are not
exclusively climbing birds. Some kinds, like the flickers, are quite as
frequently found on the ground, wading in the grass like meadowlarks.
Often we may frighten them from the tangled vines of the frost grape and
the branches of wild cherry trees, or from clumps of poison-ivy, whither
they come to eat the fruit. The red-headed woodpecker is fond of sitting
on fence posts and telegraph poles; and both he and the flicker
frequently alight on the roofs of barns and houses and go pecking and
pattering over the shingles. The sapsuckers and several other kinds will
perch on dead limbs, like a flycatcher, on the watch for insects; the
flickers, and more rarely other kinds, will sit crosswise of a limb
instead of crouching lengthwise of it, as is the custom with
woodpeckers.

All these points you will soon learn. You will become familiar with the
form, the flight, and the calls of the different woodpeckers; you will
learn not only to know them by name, but to understand their characters;
they will become your acquaintances, and later on your friends.

This heavy bird, with straight, chisel bill and sharp-pointed
tail-feathers; with his short legs and wide, flapping wings, his
unmusical but not disagreeable voice, and his heavy, undulating,
business-like flight, is distinctly bourgeois, the type of a bird
devoted to business and enjoying it. No other bird has so much work to
do all the year round, and none performs his task with more energy and
sense. The woodpecker makes no aristocratic pretensions, puts on none of
the coy graces and affectations of the professional singer; even his gay
clothes fit him less jauntily than they would another bird. He is
artisan to the backbone,--a plain, hard-working, useful citizen,
spending his life in hammering holes in anything that appears to need a
hole in it. Yet he is neither morose nor unsocial. There is a vein of
humor in him, a large reserve of mirth and jollity. We see little of it
except in the spring, and then for a time all the laughter in him
bubbles up; he becomes uproarious in his glee, and the melody which he
cannot vent in song he works out in the channels of his trade, filling
the woodland with loud and harmonious rappings. Above all other birds he
is the friend of man, and deserves to have the freedom of the fields.




II

HOW THE WOODPECKER CATCHES A GRUB


Did you ever see a hairy woodpecker strolling about a tree for what he
could pick up?

There is a _whur-r-rp_ of gay black and white wings and the flash of a
scarlet topknot as, with a sharp cry, he dashes past you, strikes the
limb solidly with both feet, and instantly sidles behind it, from which
safe retreat he keeps a sharp black eye fixed upon your motions. If you
make friends with him by keeping quiet, he will presently forgive you
for being there and hop to your side of the limb, pursuing his ordinary
work in the usual way, turning his head from side to side, inspecting
every crevice, and picking up whatever looks appetizing. Any knot or
little seam in the bark is twice scanned; in such places moths and
beetles lay their eggs. Little cocoons are always dainty morsels, and
large cocoons contain a feast. The butterfly-hunter who is hoping to
hatch out some fine cecropia moths knows well that a large proportion of
all the cocoons he discovers will be empty. The hairy woodpecker has
been there before him, and has torn the chrysalis out of its silken
cradle. For this the farmer should thank him heartily, even if the
butterfly-hunter does not, for the cecropia caterpillar is destructive.

But sometimes, on the fair bark of a smooth limb, the woodpecker stops,
listens, taps, and begins to drill. He works with haste and energy,
laying open a deep hole. For what? An apple-tree borer was there cutting
out the life of the tree. The farmer could see no sign of him; neither
could the woodpecker, but he could hear the strong grub down in his
little chamber gnawing to make it longer, or, frightened by the heavy
footsteps on his roof, scrambling out of the way.

[Illustration: Boring larva.]

It is easy to hear the borer at work in the tree. When a pine forest has
been burned and the trees are dead but still standing, there will be
such a crunching and grinding of borers eating the dead wood that it can
be heard on all sides many yards away. Even a single borer can sometimes
be heard distinctly by putting the ear to the tree. Sound travels much
farther through solids than it does through air; notice how much farther
you can hear a railroad train by the click of the rails than by the
noise that comes on the air. Even our dull ears can detect the woodworm,
but we cannot locate him. How, then, is the woodpecker to do what we
cannot do?

Doubtless experience teaches him much, but one observer suggests that
the woodpecker places the grub by the sense of touch. He says he has
seen the red-headed woodpecker drop his wings till they trailed along
the branch, as if to determine where the vibrations in the wood were
strongest, and thus to decide where the grub was boring. But no one else
appears to have noticed that woodpeckers are in the habit of trailing
their wings as they drill for grubs. It would be a capital study for one
to attempt to discover whether the woodpecker locates his grub by
feeling, or whether he does it by hearing alone. Only one should be sure
he is looking for grubs and not for beetles' eggs, nor for ants, nor for
caterpillars. By the energy with which he drills, and the size of the
hole left after he has found his tidbit, one can decide whether he was
working for a borer.

But when the borer has been located, he has yet to be captured. There
are many kinds of borers. Some channel a groove just beneath the bark
and are easily taken; but others tunnel deep into the wood. I measured
such a hole the other day, and found it was more than eight inches long
and larger than a lead-pencil, bored through solid rock-maple wood. The
woodpecker must sink a hole at right angles to this channel and draw the
big grub out through his small, rough-sided hole. You would be
surprised, if you tried to do the same with a pair of nippers the size
of the woodpecker's bill, to find how strong the borer is, how he can
buckle and twist, how he braces himself against the walls of his house.
Were your strength no greater than the woodpecker's, the task would be
much harder. Indeed, a large grub would stand a good chance of getting
away but for one thing, the woodpecker _spears_ him, and thereby saves
many a dinner for himself.

[Illustration: Indian spear.]

Here is a primitive Indian fish-spear, such as the Penobscots used. To
the end of a long pole two wooden jaws are tied loosely enough to spring
apart a little under pressure, and midway between them, firmly driven
into the end of the pole, is a point of iron. When a fish was struck,
the jaws sprung apart under the force of the blow, guiding the iron
through the body of the fish, which was held securely in the hollow
above, that just fitted around his sides, and by the point itself.

[Illustration: Solomon Islander's spear.]

The tool with which the woodpecker fishes for a grub is very much the
same. His mandibles correspond to the two movable jaws. They are
knife-edged, and the lower fits exactly inside the upper, so that they
give a very firm grip. In addition, the upper one is movable. All birds
can move the upper mandible, because it is hinged to the skull. (Watch a
parrot some day, if you do not believe it.) A medium-sized woodpecker,
like the Lewis's, can elevate his upper mandible at least a quarter of
an inch without opening his mouth at all. This enables him to draw his
prey through a smaller hole than would be needed if he must open his
jaws along their whole length. Between the mandibles is the
sharp-pointed tongue, which can be thrust entirely through a grub,
holding him impaled. Unlike the Indian's spear-point, the woodpecker's
tongue is barbed heavily on both sides, and it is extensile. As a tool
it resembles the Solomon Islander's spear. A medium-sized woodpecker can
dart his tongue out two inches or