556 AVES— WOODPECKER. 



orchard, or dig a hole in an old stake of a fence. They frequently approach 

 the farmhouses and skirts of the town. In Philadelphia, they frequent the 

 old willow and poplar trees. Their cry is strong, shrill, and tremulous; 

 they have also a single note or chuck, which they often repeat in an eager 

 manner as they hop about and dig in the crevices of the trees. They inhabit 

 the continent from Hudson's Bay to Carolina and Georgia. This bird is 

 nine inches long ; the hind head is scarlet mixed with black ; under the bill 

 are long hairs thrown forwards and upwards. The back is black, divided 

 by a strip of white, the feathers of which resemble hairs ; wings black, spotted 

 with white, the under parts are pure white. The great mass of hairs that 

 cover the nostril appears to be designed as a protection to the front of the 

 head, when the bird is engaged in digging holes in the wood. In flight these 

 birds sink and rise alternately, uttering a loud tremulous scream as they sei 

 off and alight. They are hard to kill. 



THE DOWNY WOODPECKER 1 



Is the smallest of all, and exactly resembles the former in tints and mark 

 ings, and in almost every thing but its diminutive size. Its principal 

 characteristics are diligence, familiarity, and a strength and energy in the 

 head and neck, which are truly astonishing. Mounted on the infected 

 branch of an old apple tree, where insects have lodged between the bark and 

 the wood, he labors sometimes for half an hour incessantly at the same spot, 

 till he has succeeded in dislodging them. At these times you may walk 

 pretty close to the tree without in the least embarrassing him : the strokes 

 of his bill are distinctly heard several hundred yards off; and I have known 

 him to work for two hours together on one tree. He has a single note or 

 chink, which he frequently repeats: and when he flies off, he utters a rather 

 shriller cry, quickly reiterated. Of all our woodpeckers, none rid the apple- 

 trees of so many vermin as this; digging off the moss, and probing every 

 ;revice. His industry is unequalled, and almost incessant. 



t;::. ?. ed-bellied woodpeckers 



Possesses all the restless and noisy habits of its tribe. It is more shy than 

 the red-headed one. It is also more solitary. It prefers the largest, high- 

 timbered woods and tallest decayed timbers of the forest ; seldom appearing 

 near the ground, on the fences, or in orchards ; yet where the trees have 

 been deadened in fields of Indian corn, it is pretty numerous, and it feeds 



1 Picuspubescens, Lin. *Picus Carolinus, Lin. 



