AVES — WOODPECKER. 555 



fore wet weather, making the woods echo to his outcry. Almost every trunk 

 in the forests bears the marks of his chisel. Whether engaged in digging, 

 flying, or climbing, he seems perpetually in a hurry. He is extremely hard 

 to kill, clinging close to the tree after he has received his mortal wound ; nor 

 yielding up his hold but with his expiring breath. He can rarely be recon- 

 ciled to confinement. 



This bird is not migratory, but bears the extremes of both the arctic and 

 torrid regions. Neither is he gregarious, for it is rare to see more than one 

 or two in company. Their nest is built in the hole of a tree, dug out by 

 themselves : it is eighteen inches long ; the general color is a dusky brown- 

 ish black ; the head is ornamented with a conical cap of bright scarlet ; the 

 chin is white, with two scarlet mustaches ; the upper part of the wings is 

 white, the lower part black, but the white is never seen except when the bird 

 is flying. 



THE YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER 1 



Is one of our resident birds. It visits our orchards in the fall in great num- 

 bers, and is occasionally seen during the whole winter and spring; but seems 

 to seek the depths of the forest to rear its young in ; for during the summer 

 it is rarely seen. It inhabits the continent from Cayenne to Virginia. They 

 are common in Kentucky and Ohio, and have been seen near St. Louis. 

 The only nest of this bird which I have met with was in the body of an old 

 pear tree. The hole was almost exactly circular, small for the size of the 

 bird, so that he crept in and out with difficulty ; but suddenly widened by a 

 small angle, and then running downwards about fifteen inches. On the 

 smooth solid wood were four eggs. The principal food of these birds is 

 insects ; and they seem particularly fond of frequenting orchards, boring the 

 trunks of the apple trees in their eager search for them. In the morning 

 they are extremely active. Their cry cannot be described by words. 



THE HAIRY WOODPECKER 2 



Is, like the former, a haunter of orchards, and borer of apple trees, an eager 

 hunter of insects in old stumps and rails, and rotten branches and crevices 

 of the bark. In the spring, he retires into the woods and seeks out a branch 

 already hollow, or cuts out an opening for himself. In the latter case he 

 digs horizontally first, and then downwards, carrying up the chips witn his 

 bill, and scraping them out with his feet. They sometimes breed in an 



: Picus varius, Wilson. *Picus villosus, Lin. 



