t ten more when they sit still and let me take a good
look at them."

"I think that is doing very well, indeed, for watching live birds is not
a bit like learning rules and figures by heart. Though your tables give
you some facts about birds' colors and habits, every bird has some
little ways and tricks of his very own that are always a surprise; and
then, you see, a bird in the hand looks very different from a bird in
the bush!"

"I suppose that is why uncle wants us to go out to see for ourselves,
instead of telling us stories every day. This morning, when I was over
in the miller's woods, where we heard the Whip-poor-will, I saw the
queerest bird, running up a tree; he let me come close to, without being
frightened.

[Illustration: Downy Woodpecker.]

"At first I thought he was a Black-and-white Creeper, for he was all
black and white. Then I saw he was much bigger, and the beak was square
at the end, as if it was cut off instead of being sharp-pointed. He had
the strangest feet, two toes behind and two in front, and when he came
down near where I stood, I saw a bright-red spot on the head. When I
went a step nearer, he didn't like it, and then laughed out loud at
me--'Quip! Cher, cher, cher, cher! Ha! ha! ha! ha!' I thought he might
be some kind of a Woodpecker, but those in uncle's room are a great deal
bigger."

"A very good description of the Downy Woodpecker," said the Doctor,
coming up under the porch where they were sitting. "This bird belongs
not only to a different family from any you have heard about, but to a
different order also.

"You have seen that Perching Birds all have three toes in front, and one
behind on the same level, so that they may easily grasp a perch and keep
their balance. But Woodpeckers do not perch in the true sense--they rest
either against a tree-trunk or on a limb, and even sleep in these
positions. They almost all have four toes, two in front and two behind,
and the strong pair of hind toes prop them up when they climb the
trunks of trees, or when they stop to bore for their food. They also
have stiff, pointed tail-feathers that they press against the upright
trunks of trees to keep themselves in place, the same as Swifts do
inside chimneys, or Brown Creepers scrambling about trees. So they make
brackets of themselves, as Rap says. Their bills are strong and
straight, like chisels, so that they may cut and gouge hard wood without
breaking them. Besides all this, they have cu