the wood of trees. This object is perfectly attained in the woodpecker. The little treecreeper and the wryneck (both birds of similar habits and with certain resemblances in structure to the woodpecker), can dispose of the insects on and near the surface, but those which burrow deeper would soon become a plague, were it not for the larger and more powerful woodpeckers. Parrots are climbing birds, and powerful ones too; but if we had them in this country they could not do the work of woodpeckers. Neither the beak nor the feet of parrots would be of any service to a woodpecker. Parrots are fruit-feeding, nut-cracking climbers; woodpeckers are insect-feeding climbers; each admirably adapted to their respective parts, and to those parts alone. The study of the different species of climbing birds, especially with regard to their comparative anatomy, is most interesting and instructive. The means adopted by nature to attain the same, or similar ends, seem to be almost infinitely various; and the more closely we look into them, the more are we overwhelmed with wonder at the manifold and complicated, yet simple and easy-working, machinery of everything we see around us. If a knowledge of natural history do not dispose us to religion, it only shows how fallen we are, how dull and slow of heart, to be able to see all this, and not to break forth in praise to the great Author of it all. There is no sincere Christian, I am sure, who may not find in the study of nature a vast help to his spiritual advancement; and the more deeply and thoroughly he studies any particular branch of natural science, the more heartily and adoringly will he be able to offer up the praise of the Psalmist,—“ O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches!" It has been already observed, that there is no waste of power in creation. The mechanism, which enables the woodpecker to ascend the trunks of trees, prevents him from descending, except backwards. He knows this, and consequently, when he flies off to a new tree for food, he invariably alights near the bottom, and works his way to the top. The light little tree-creeper can run about a tree in any direction; but to have given a bulky bird like the woodpecker this power would have required so complicated a mechanism, as might have interfered with the laws of beauty and symmetry; and as the object could be equally gained by a modification of the bird's habits, the simpler plan was adopted. The green woodpecker, however, does not feed exclusively on the insects to be found in trees; it is particularly fond of ants and their eggs, and is therefore more frequently seen on the ground than the other species. Its beak and tongue are of course of the greatest assistance to it here, enabling it to pierce deeply into the ants' nests, and to extract their contents with facility. Great judgment is shown by the woodpecker in the choice of a tree for its nest. It generally selects one which stands singly in an open space, from which the advance of an enemy can be easily observed and guarded against. The hole in which it lays its eggs, and where also it roosts, cannot help being conspicuous to passers-by from its size; but it seems small for so large a bird, and one would almost wonder how it got in and out. To make it as small as possible is evidently an object in its construction, but its principal source of security is in the form of the interior. In a nest examined by Mr. Couch, of Polperro, in Cornwall (see Zoologist," 1858), the hole slanted a little downwards for 7 or 8 inches, and then descended steeply for 2 feet, and the eggs, 5 in number, were laid on the rotten wood at the bottom. They were pure white when washed, but stained when found, by the wet wood on which they had lain. There were two holes in this tree, both occupied by the same pair,-one for the nest and the female bird, the other, he believed, for the male. He had known it tenanted for 30 years; but having examined it in 1858, and thereby caused the enlargement of the entrance, in 1859 he found that the rightful owners had been turned out by a pair of jackdaws, an accident which no doubt would often happen, if the woodpecker were not so particular in making the entrance to her nest as small as possible. |