THE WHITE-BILLED WOODPECKER.

This species is about the size of a crow. The bill is white, three inches long, and channelled. On the head is a red pointed crest: the head itself and the body in general are black; but the lower part of the back, the rump, and upper tail coverts, are white. From the eye a white stripe arises, and passes, on each side of the neck, down to the back.

The White-billed Woodpecker is found in Carolina, Virginia, and other parts of North America.

The Spanish settlers of South America have given to the Whitebilled Woodpecker the name of Carpenter, from the noise that it makes with its bill against the trees in the woods. This is heard at a great distance; and when several of these birds are at work toge ther, the sound is not much unlike that proceeding from woodmen or carpenters. This Woodpecker rattles its bill against the sides of the orifice, till even the woods resound. A bushel of chips, a proof of its labors, is often to be found at the foot of the tree. On examination its holes have been generally found of a winding form, the better to protect the nest from the effects of the weather.

The Canadian Indians make a kind of coronet with the bills of these birds, by setting them in a wreath with the points outward; and for this purpose they will purchase them at the rate of two or three buckskins per bill.

THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.

This species is about nine inches long. The bill is about an inch and a quarter in length, of a lead color with a black tip. The head and neck are of a most beautiful crimson; the back and wings are black, the rump, breast, and belly, white; the first ten quills are black, the eleventh black and white, and the rest white with black shafts. It inhabits Carolina, Canada, and most other parts of North America; migrating southwards, according to the severity of the weather.

In various parts of America these Woodpeckers are extremely common: and few animals can be more destructive than they are, in maize-fields and orchards. They attack the trees in flocks, and eat so much of the fruit that nothing but the skin is left. In some years they are much more numerous than in others. A premium of four cents per head was formerly paid from the public funds of some of the States, in order, if possible, to extirpate the breed: but this has of late been much neglected.

They remain during the whole year in Virginia and Carolina, but are not seen in such numbers in winter as during summer. In the winter they are very tame; and they are frequently known to come into the houses, in the same manner as the Redbreast does in England.

These Woodpeckers, like the other species, build their nests in holes, which they form in the trees; and it is said that the noise they make with their bills in this operation, may be heard more than a mile. Their flesh is by many people accounted good eating.

THE WRYNECK.

The bill of the Wryneck is roundish, slightly curved, and weak. The nostrils are bare of feathers, and somewhat concave. The tongue is long, slender, and armed at the point. There are are ten flexible feathers in the tail; and the feet are formed for climbing, the toes being placed two backward and two forward. This bird is about the size of a lark, and its plumage consists of different shades of brown, elegantly blended together. The tail-feathers are of a pale ash-color, marked with black and red, and having four equi-distant bars of black.

THE WRYNECK.

This bird (for there is only one ascertained species of its tribe) is well known in most parts of England. In the form of its tongue and toes it resembles the Woodpeckers, but the slenderness of the bill prevents its being arranged amongst them.

The female builds an artless nest in the hole of a tree, and deposits in it eight or ten perfectly white eggs. Dr. Derham informs us, that although these birds are far from being any way terrible, yet when in danger, they have such singular contortions of their neck, and such odd motions with their head, that, when he was a boy, he used to be so much alarmed at them, that he was deterred from either taking their nests or touching the birds, daring no more to venture his hands into their holes, than if a Serpent had lodged in them. The young ones, while in the nest, will also hiss like Snakes; which may afford an additional preventive against the nest being plundered.

Their food consists principally of Ants and other insects, of which they find great abundance lodged in the bark and crevices of trees. They also frequent grass-plots and Ant-hills; into which they dart their tongues, and from which they draw out their prey. Mr. White, in his Naturalist's Calendar, tells us that these are so long as to coil round their heads.

The manners of this species were minutely examined by taking a female from her nest, and confining her in a cage for some days. A quantity of mould, with Ants and their grubs, was given to her; and it was curious to observe the tongue darted forward and retracted, with such velocity, and such unerring aim, that it never returned without either an Ant or a grub adhering to its viscous extremity, and not transfixed by it as is generally supposed. While feeding, the body was altogether motionless; the head only being turned; and the motion of the tongue so rapid, that the grubs, which were of a light color, and were more conspicuous than the tongue, had somewhat the appearance

of moving to the mouth by attraction, as a small particle of iron flies to a magnet. The bill was rarely used, except to remove the mould in order to get more readily at the insects. Where the earth was hollow, the tongue was thrust into the cavities, in order to rouse the Ants: for this purpose the horny extremity is very serviceable, as a guide to it into the interior.

The Wryneck is a solitary bird, never being seen in any other society than that of its own mate: and even this is only transitory; for as soon as the domestic union is dissolved, which is in the month of September, each retires and migrates by itself, and does not return till the ensuing spring. The voice of these birds is very much like that of the smaller species of Hawks. They also sometimes make a noise like a Grasshopper.

OF THE NUT-HATCH TRIBE IN GENERAL.

THE characters of this tribe are, a bill for the most part straight, having, on the lower mandible, a small angle: small nostrils, covered with bristles: a short tongue, horny at the end and jagged: toes placed three forward and one backward; the middle toe joined closely at the base to both the outer; and the back toe as large as the middle one.

In the habits and manners of the different species of Nut-hatch, we observe a very close alliance to the Wood-peckers. Most of them feed on insects; and some on nuts, whence their appellation has been acquired.

THE EUROPEAN NUT-HATCH.

The length of this bird is five inches and three-quarters. The bill is strong and straight, about three-quarters of an inch long; the upper mandible is black, and the lower white. All the upper parts of the body are of a bluish gray: the cheeks and chin are white; the breast and belly pale orange-color; and the quills dusky. The tail is short; and consists of twelve feathers, the two middle ones of which are gray, the two outer spotted with white, and the rest dusky. The legs are pale yellow; the claws are large, and the back one very strong.

NUT-HATCH.

The Nut-hatch, the Squirrel, and the Field-mouse, which all live much on hazel-nuts, have each a curious way of getting at the kernel. Of the two latter, the Squirrel after rasping off the small end, splits the shell in two with his long fore-teeth, as a man does with his knife; the Field-mouse nibbles a hole with his teeth, as regular as if it were drilled with a whimble, and yet so small that one would wonder how the kernel could be extracted through it; while the Nut-hatch picks an irregular ragged hole with his bill; but, as he has no paws to hold the nut firm while he pierces it, he, like an adroit workman, fixes it, as it were in a vice, in some cleft of a tree, or in some crevice; when,

OF THE KINGFISHER TRIBE IN GENERAL.

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standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell. On placing nuts in the chink of a gate-post where Nut-hatches have been known to haunt, it has always been found that these birds have readily penetrated them. While at work they make a rapping noise, which may be heard at a considerable distance. Dr. Plott informs us that this bird, by putting its bill into a crack in the bough of a tree, sometimes makes a loud sound, as if the branch were rending asunder. Besides nuts, it feeds also on Caterpillars, Beetles and various other insects.

The female deposits her eggs, six or seven in number, in some hole of a tree, frequently in one that has been deserted by the Woodpecker, or rotten wood mixed with moss. If the entrance be too large, she nicely stops up part of it with clay, leaving only a small hole for herself to pass in and out. While the hen is sitting, if a stick be put into the hole she hisses like a snake; and she is so much attached to her eggs, that she will sooner suffer any one to pluck off the feathers than fly away. During the time of incubation, she is assiduously attended by the male who supplies her with food. If the barrier of plaster at the entrance of the hole be destroyed whilst these birds have eggs, it is speedily replaced; this is a peculiar instinct, to prevent the nest from being destroyed by Woodpeckers and other birds of superior size and strength, which build in similar situations.

The Nut-hatch is supposed not to sleep perched (like most other birds) on a twig; for it has been observed, that when kept in a cage, notwithstanding it would perch now and then, yet at night it generally crept into some hole or corner to sleep: and it is remarkable that when perched, or otherwise at rest, it had mostly the head downward, or at least even with the body, and not elevated like other birds.

These are shy and solitary birds. Like the Woodpeckers they frequent woods, and run up and down the trees with surprising facility. They often move their tail in the manner of the Wagtail. They do not migrate; but, during the winter, they approach nearer to inhabited places, and are sometimes seen in orchards and gardens.

OF THE KINGFISHER TRIBE IN GENERAL,

THE bill is sharp, triangular, long, straight and thick. The tongue is fleshy, short, flat and sharp. The feet, except in a few species, are formed for climbing, with the toes two backward and two forward.

These birds frequent the banks of rivers; living principally on fish, which they catch with great dexterity. They swallow their prey whole but afterwards throw up the indigestible parts.. Their wings are short; yet they fly very swiftly.

THE COMMON KINGFISHER.

The length of the Kingfisher is seven inches, and its breadth eleven. The bill is nearly two inches long, and black; but the base of the lower mandible is yellow. The top of the head, and the sides of the body, are of a dark green, marked with transverse spots of blue. The tail is of a deep blue; and the other parts of the body are of a dusky orange, white, and black. The legs are red.

In the beauty and brilliancy of its plumage, the Common Kingfisher far excels all the other species of British birds. Its shape is, however, somewhat inelegant, from the great disproportion there is, in size, between the head and bill, and the other parts of the body.

Its usual prey consists of the smaller kinds of fish. It frequently sits on a branch projecting over the current: there it remains motionless, and often watches whole hours, to catch the moment when a little fish rises to the surface of the water under its station; it dives perpendicularly into the water, where it continues several seconds, and then brings up the fish, which it carries to land, beats to death, and afterwards swallows.

When the Kingfisher cannot find a projecting bough, it sits on some stone near the brink, or even on the gravel; but the moment it perceives the fish, it takes a spring upward, of twelve or fifteen feet, and drops perpendicularly from that height. Often it is observed to stop short in its rapid course, and remain stationary, hovering (in a manner not unlike some of the Hawk tribe) over the same spot for several seconds. Such is its mode in winter, when the muddy swell of the stream, or the thickness of the ice, constrains it to leave the rivers, and ply along the sides of the unfrozen brooks. At each pause it continues, as it were, suspended at the height of fifteen or twenty feet; and, when it would change its place, it sinks, and skims along within a foot of the surface of the water, then rises and halts again. This repeated and almost continual exercise, shows that the bird dives for many small objects, fishes or insects, and often in vain; for in this way it passes over many a league.

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'Kingfishers (says Mr. Gmelin) are seen all over Siberia; and their feathers are employed by the Tartars and the Ostiacs for many superstitious uses. The former pluck them, cast them into water, and carefully preserve such as float; and they pretend, that if with one of these feathers they touch a woman, or even her clothes, she must fall in love with them. The Ostiacs take the skin, the bill, and the claws, of this bird, and shut them in a purse; and, as long as they preserve this sort of amulet, they believe that they have no ill to fear. The person who taught me this means of living happy, could not forbear shedding tears; he told me that the loss of a Kingfisher's skin that he had, caused him to lose also his wife and his goods. I observed, that such a bird could not be very rare, since a countryman of his had brought me one, with its skin and feathers; he was much surprised, and said that if he had the luck to find one, he would give it to no person."