Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/478

LEFT WOODPECKER 408 WOODSTOCK with deep orange, the bands dotted with black; the top of the eleventh ring is humped. WOODPECKER, in ornithology, the popular name of the old Linnaean genus Picus, now greatly divided. Woodpeck- ers have a slender body, powerful beak, and protrusile tongue, which is sharp, barbed and pointed, and covered with a glutinous secretion derived from glands in the throat, this coating being renewed every time the tongue is drawn within the bill. The tail is stiff, and serves as a support when the birds are clinging to the branches or stems of trees. The plumage is generally of strongly contrast- PLEATED WOODPECKER ed colors, black and white, or green and yellow, with red marks about the head. Woodpeckers are very widely distrib- uted, but abound chiefly in warm cli- mates. They are solitary in habit, and live in the depths of forests. Fruits, seeds, and insects constitute their food, and in pursuit of the latter they ex- hibit wonderful dexterity, climbing with astonishing quickness on the trunks and branches of trees, and when, by tapping with their bills, a rotten place has been discovered, they dig vigorously in search of the grubs or larvje beneath the bark. The common notion that they are injuri- ous to trees is erroneous, as they do more good by preventing the ravages of in- sects than harm by their pecking. They roost and breed in hollow trunks, or holes in trees, enlarged by their strong, sharp bills; the eggs, which are white, smooth, and glossy, vary considerably in number, and are deposited on a bed of chips at the bottom of the hole. WOOD PULP, a preparation of wood used in the manufacture of paper and in other industries. There are two kinds of wood pulp, one known as ground or mechanical, and the other as chemical. The first is the cheapest and is used chiefly for making newspaper and com- mon wrapping paper stock. In this kind spruce wood is most commonly employed, because it is cheap and gummy, the lat- ter quality being valuable in that it adds much to the tenacity of the material made from the pulp. In the manufacture of ground pulp swiftly revolving emory wheels are worked under water. The spruce logs are pressed against these till reduced to a fine wet sawdust. It has, however, now lost its fiber, and must be mixed with one-fifth chemical wood pulp, so that it will hold together in the form of paper. WOODS HOLE, a village in Barn- stable CO., Mass.; on Buzzards Bay; and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad, 72 miles S. E. of Boston. It is the seat of one of the most important stations of the United States Fisheries Commission, where lobsters, sea bass, cod, and other food fishes are propagated. Besides an extensive fish hatchery, the station is equipped with an excellent marine biological laboratory, in which a corps of efficient teachers an- nually give instruction to a large num- ber of students. Woods Hole has also long been celebrated as a harbor of refuge for shipping. WOODSTOCK, a market town of Ox- fordshii'e, England, on the Glyme, 7 miles N. N. W. of Oxford; has a chapel mostly rebuilt in 1785, but retaining fragments of 12th century work. The glory of the place is Blenheim Palace, in whose park, laid out by Capability Brown, the tiny Glyme is spanned by a mighty bridge, then widens into an arti- ficial lake, while the trees are ranged as were the troops at Marlborough's vic- tory. The palace itself, designed by Vanbrugh, covers seven acres, and is a heavy, imposing pile, with rich art col- lections, though its "Titian Gallery" Avas destroyed by fire in 1861. Glove sewing is the leading industry of Woodstock. The legends of Fair Rosamond's laby- rinth and murder by Queen Eleanor, of Alfred's and Chaucer's residence at Woodstock, must be abandoned; but as