Citizen Bird Part 44

"The Flicker's beak is more slender and curving than those of his brethren, and he has an extremely long, barbed tongue, which, he uses to probe ant-hills. The sticky substance in the bird's mouth covers the little barbs on its tongue, and thus he is able to catch a great many ants at a time. He is one of our best ant-eaters."

"Are ants very bad things if they don't get into the sugar?" asked Dodo.

"There are a great many kinds of ants; though all may not be harmful, some of them do great damage by destroying timber or ripe fruit, and helping to spread lice about the roots of all sorts of plants.

"The Flicker has a jolly laughing call that sounds like 'Wick-wick-wick-wick!' repeated very quickly, and he also hammers away on a tree in fine style when he wishes to call his mate or let her know his whereabouts. Like other Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, he hollows out a soft spot in a tree until he has made quite a deep hole, which, with a few chips in the bottom for bedding, serves as his nest. Most little Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs climb up to the hole-edge to be fed; but young Flickers are fed in the same way as little Hummingbirds, the parent swallowing food and when it is softened bringing it back from the crop by pressing on it with the beak."

"What is the crop?" asked Dodo.

"It is an elastic pouch in the gullet of a bird, where food that has been swallowed is kept for a while before it goes further down into the stomach. You have seen this crop in the necks of Chickens and Pigeons."

"Oh, yes, a round swelled-up place; but what is the good of it?"

persisted Dodo.

"It is a resting-place for food, where it may swell, soften, and be partly ground up. All birds are fond of eating sand and gravel."

"Oh, yes! My Canary picks up lots of little bits every time I put fresh sand in his cage."

"This gravel mixes with the food and helps to grind it up. You ran understand how necessary this is when you remember that some birds, like Pigeons, swallow hard grains of corn entirely whole."

"Yes, and I saw Mammy Bun clean a Chicken yesterday," said Nat; "there was a lot of sand and corn in a lump in its throat--and so that's called a crop?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Flicker.]

"To return to the Flickers: they live in flocks in autumn, and when a number are feeding on the ground at a little distance they might be taken for Meadowlarks--so you see that you did not make such a dreadful mistake after all, little girl."

"Won't you come over to the miller's woods with us, uncle, and perhaps we can find the Downy's nest hole," said Nat.

"Yes, I will come and tell you about the fourth Woodp.e.c.k.e.r on the way--the one called the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Though very handsome, this is not a bird that you would care to have come in great numbers to your garden or orchard. For this bird makes holes in the tree bark and eats the sap that leaks out, from this habit gaining the name of Sapsucker. Of course you see that this is a very bad thing for the trees; for when a great many holes have been bored near together the bark loosens and peels off, so that the tree is likely to die. The Sap-sucker also does harm by eating the soft inner bark which is between the rough outside bark and the hard heart-wood of the tree; for this soft bark is where the sap flows to nourish the tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker.]

"When the bird bores the holes and the sap oozes out, a great many insects gather to feed on it--hornets, wasps, spiders, beetles, flies, and other kinds. These the Sapsucker also eats, sweeping them up in the sap with his tongue, which is not barbed like that of other Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, but has a little brush on the end of it, shaped something like those we use for cleaning lamp chimneys. In this way he can easily lick up great quant.i.ties of both sap and insects. You will not probably see him before autumn, for he nests northward from Ma.s.sachusetts; but you can write down his table now, and then be on the watch for him."

The Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

Length about eight and a half inches.

Upper parts mixed black, while, and dull yellowish; wings and tail black, with much white on both; crown scarlet in the male.

Under parts light yellow on the belly, scarlet on the throat, black on the breast, and with black marks on the sides.

A Citizen of eastern North America, roving further north than most Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs and wintering as far south as Central America. A useful bird in wild places, but unwelcome in gardens and orchards, and not a good neighbor.

A member only of the guild of Tree Trappers.

"I wonder if I shall see the little Downy," said Dodo, as she skipped down the road to the woods between her uncle and Nat.

"Don't hop so," said Nat; "it doesn't do at all when you are bird-hunting. Rap says you must go quietly, and not swing your arms either, for it frightens birds more than even a scarecrow."

"It is very hard to keep still when you are bursting with hurry to get somewhere," answered Dodo very meekly, but not wholly able to resist an occasional jump.

"I'll show you the way," said Nat. "The little Downy's tree was beside the footpath on top of the river bank. But the bird has gone!"

The Flicker

Length twelve inches.

Upper parts brown barred with black; the rump snow-white; the head gray with a scarlet band on the back of it.

Under parts crowded with round black spots; a large black patch on the breast; throat lilac; the male with a pair of black moustaches, which, of course, the female does not have.

Under side of wings and tail almost all golden-yellow, even the shafts of the feathers being of this rich color.

A Citizen of eastern North America, west sometimes to the Pacific Ocean.

Spends the winter in the southern half of his range.

This Woodp.e.c.k.e.r is not only a beautiful, but a useful, Citizen, doing almost as much work in the guild of Ground Gleaners as the Meadowlark, besides being a Tree Trapper and Seed Sower.

CHAPTER XXIV

TWO ODD FELLOWS

"KUK--kuk--kuk! Crc.o.k--c-r-o-c-k--c-r-o-c-k!" cried a harsh voice from the wood edge.

"Tr-r-r-at-tat-tat!" rattled another bird from over the river bank.

"Those must both be Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs," said the children; "for both noises are like hammering."

"Yes," continued Nat, "and I see the one who made the rattle. It is a Woodp.e.c.k.e.r with a very big head and bob tail, and sort of gray with black straps in front. See, uncle! He is on a branch of that dead tree, right over the river--there, he has fallen off into the water!"

The Doctor smiled as he said: "Here is another case of mistaken ident.i.ty--very much like Dodo with her rare Meadowlark! This bird is a Kingfisher, who did not fall into the water, but dived in after the fish for which he sat watching."

"So some wood birds eat fish, as well as the Osprey that we saw at the beach; but how do they chew them, Uncle Roy?"

"They do not chew them. If the fish is not too large, they swallow it whole, and very funny faces they make sometimes in doing so. If it is too large, they beat it against a branch and tear it before eating. As they live on fish, they make their home near water, and only travel south when the rivers freeze."

"Do they build nests in trees?" asked Dodo.

"No; they burrow tunnels in the earth of river banks, and put their nests at the end of them, just as the Bank Swallow does; only the Kingfisher's tunnel is much larger, and his nest is not nicely lined with feathers--the young often have no softer bed than a few fish-bones."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Belted Kingfisher.]