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The Woodpeckers

The Woodpeckers

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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 (colored) _Frontispiece_

Boring Larva 10

Indian Spear 12

Solomon Islander's Spear 13

Downy Woodpecker (colored) _facing_ 28

Bark showing Work of Sapsucker 34

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (colored) _facing_ 34

Trunk of Tree showing Work of Californian Woodpecker 47

Californian Woodpecker (colored) _facing_ 48

Red-headed Woodpecker (colored) _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 colored 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.
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