(_Dryobates villosus_) Woodpecker family
(Illustration facing p. 45)
_Length_--9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin.
_Male_--Black and white above, white beneath. White stripe down
the back, composed of long hair-like feathers. Bright-red
band on the nape of neck. Wings striped and dashed with black
and white. Outer tail feathers white, without bars. White
stripe about eyes and on sides of the head.
_Female_--Without the red band on head, and body more brownish
than that of the male.
_Range_--Eastern parts of United States, from the Canadian
border to the Carolinas.
_Migrations_--Resident throughout its range.
The bill of the woodpecker is a hammering tool, well fitted for its
work. Its mission in life is to rid the trees of insects, which hide
beneath the bark, and with this end in view, the bird is seen clinging
to the trunks and branches of trees through fair and wintry weather,
industriously scanning every inch for the well-known signs of the
boring worm or destructive fly.
In the autumn the male begins to excavate his winter quarters,
carrying or throwing out the chips, by which this good workman is
known, with his beak, while the female may make herself cosey or not,
as she chooses, in an abandoned hole. About her comfort he seems
shamefully unconcerned. Intent only on his own, he drills a perfectly
round hole, usually on the under side of a limb where neither snow nor
wind can harm him, and digs out a horizontal tunnel in the dry,
brittle wood in the very heart of the tree, before turning downward
into the deep, pear-shaped chamber, where he lives in selfish
solitude. But when the nesting season comes, how devoted he is
temporarily to the mate he has neglected and even abused through the
winter! Will she never learn that after her clear-white eggs are laid
and her brood raised he will relapse into the savage and forget all
his tender wiles?
The hairy woodpecker, like many another bird and beast, furnishes much
doubtful weather lore for credulous and inexact observers. "When the
woodpecker pecks low on the trees, expect warm weather" is a common
saying, but when different individuals are seen pecking at the same
time, one but a few feet from the ground, and another among the high
branches, one may make the prophecy that pleases him best.
The hairy woodpeckers love the deep woods. They are drummers, not
singers; but when walking in the desolate winter woods even the
drumming and tapping of the busy feathered workmen on a resonant limb
is a solace, giving a sense of life and cheerful activity which is
invigorating.