Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-10-12
Woodpeckers.

| Ihe peculiar CHARACTERISTICS OF the wood.
peckers are the construction of the beak,
the feet, and tail The beak is constructed
for chipping away the bark and wood, the
feet giving them the power to hold fast to
| the trunk of the tree, and the tail to sup
port them in position, which gives to their
strokes the greatest force. Their beaks
are long. powerful, straight, and pointed;
their feet, formed for grasping, are set far
back upon the body; their tails are short
and stiff, and act as props when pressed
upon the rough bark. WOodpeckers were
tor long time thought to be injurious to
trees, but that prejudice natural SITS row
agree was wholly an error. Often, in walk
ing through the woods or orchards, there
will he seen s.rewn in profusion, at the foot
of a tree, fakes of bark and chips of wood,
sure signs of the woodpecker's indust' y.
1t looks as though work of destruction
was Icing carried on, but these flakes, hav-
ing become separated from the living bark
of the tree, were mere excrescences under
which insects and their larva found shelter,
and to obtain them for food the wood
pecker removes the dead flakes of bark and
wood, so that in reallt5', instead of being
an enemy to the farmer, he is one of his
most faithful servants. The woOdpecker
makes Its nest in tunnel which it exca-
Yates in the unsOuad timbers. Water.
when admitted to tree, causes its center
to decay; but if perforation is made
through the trunk. gallon after gallon of
dark brown water will rush out, mixed
with fragments of decayed wood, showing
tho extent of the damage done. This
often occurs when branch has been blown
off close to the trunk; the woodpecker is
quick to discover 1t, and begins to cut
tunnel. Wilson and Audubon both state
that many of our woodpeckers will exca-
vate tunnels in apparently sound and unde-
cayed wood, boring through several inches,
TIL they reach the decayed portions OF the
center of the tree.
The burrowing powers of the great giant
gray-bellied woodpecker are marvellous, Its
chisel like beak having been known to chip
sphnters from mahogany table, and to
cut hole fifteen inches In width through a
lath- and plaster partition. Even the small
downy wOodpecker Is able to bore its way
through solid wood of tree, making an
ingenious nest, the burrows sloping for
some six or eight inches, then being driven
perpendicularly down the tree. The tun-
mel is barely wide enough to admit of the
passage of the body of the bird. But the
hole is roomy, and is fitted
up in style sufficient to dignity it with
the name of chamber. The male and
female woodpeckers labor alternately IN
the burrowing and making of the nest, but
they find an implacable enemy in the saucy |
little wren, who, when the woodpeckers'
apartments are ready for occupancy, coolly |
takes possession, and holds them against |
the builders and proprietors, notwithstand-
ing their vehement and noisy expostula- /
tons. Picus principals is distinguished |
by a superb red carmins crest and bill of |
polished ivory. This is indeed no common |
bird, but is king among his kind. No
fence rails for him to perch upon, but |
rather the tops of lofty trees, the giant |
pines of the cypress swamps, where the
notes and loud strokes awaken
and reawsken the echoes. From the base |
Of some OF these enormous pine trees cart
oads Of bark have been removed, and the !
!rees so perforated with holes that 1t would |
seem to be impossible that it was the work
Of birds.