THE IVORY- 1)1 1.T.F.I) WOOnrECKER. 



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IovkI notes, and sinsjular occupation, amidst scenes so savag-o yet majestic, aftord withal 

 a peculiar scene of solemn grandeur, on which the mind dwells for a moment with 

 sublime contemplation, convinced that there is no scene in nature devoid of harmonious 

 consistence. Nor is the performance of this industrious hermit less remarkable than the 

 peals of his sonorous voice, or the loud choppings of his powerful bill. He is soon 

 surrounded with striking monuments of his industry : like a real carpenter (a nick-name 

 given him by the Spaniards), he is seen surrounded with cart-loads of chips and broad 

 flakes of bark, which rapidly accumulate round the roots of the tall pine and cypress 

 where he has been a few hours employed ; the work of half a dozen men, felling- trees 

 for a whole morning, would scarcely exceed the pile he has produced in quest of a single 

 breakfast upon these insect larviTe which have already, perhaps, succeeded in deadening 

 the tree preparatory to the repast. Jlany thousand acres of pine-trees in the southern 

 states have been destroyed in a single season by the insidious attacks of insects, which, 

 in the dormant state, are not larger than a grain of rice. It is in quest of these enemies 

 of the most imposing part of the vegetable creation that the industrious and indefatigable 

 woodpecker exercises his peculiar labour. In the sound and healthy tree he tinds nothing 

 which serves him for food." 



