Identifier: cu31924000070809 (find matches)
Title: Bird studies for home and school; sixty common birds, their habits and haunts
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: De Groat, Herman C
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Buffalo, N. Y., Herman C. De Groat
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ely in live ones. He pecks out a holetwelve to twenty inches deep in the trunk or in a large limb ofa tree, enlarging the passage as he goes down. On the chipsthat fall inside, the eggs are laid and the little ones hatched.The bed may be a hard one but it is safe from the prying eyesand sharp talons of the Owls, Hawks, Crows and Jays, thosenatural enemies of the small birds. In this hole or in a similarone, our Woodpecker makes his home during both summer andwinter. Many birds roost at night in the branches of the trees,but this is not true of Woodpeckers. They are always safeat night from storms and enemies in their .snug bedrooms. Thismanner of nesting helps to protect the species from destruc-tion. The Downy is the smallest of all the Woodpeckers. How-ever, he makes up in strength and activity what he lacks insize. There are few birds in the North more helpful to manthan this one. While many others wcsrk hard for us fromdawn to darkness during the summer time, this little keeper 34
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l(;4 IIDVVKV WOODPECKER.Lile-feize of the trees works throughout the entire year and takes no holi-days. He is always searching for the tree-destroying borers,ants and caterpillars. Clinging to the trunk with his peculiarfeet and braced with his stifif tail, he hammers away with avigor that must startle the grubs within. Quickly overtakingthem with his hammer and chisel and spfearing them with hisbarbed tongue, he makes but a single bite of the largest of them. The Downy Woodpecker is the tamest member of hisfamily, coming daily into the trees of the lawns and theorchards for food. He is little disturbed by your approach andseldom flies farther away than the next tree when he is com-pelled to move. In the midst of his searching, he often uttersa cheerful chick, chick that seems to indicate his certainty ofsuccess. In the winter he is on good terms with Nuthatchesand Chickadees, roaming the woods with them during the dayin search of food, and often taking them home with him atnight to

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