.512 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



describes tlie entrauce to tlie excavation as often being at right angles to the 

 ti'iuilv for a few inches before it descends. He states that in the Southern 

 and Middle States two broods are raised in a season, farther nortli seldom 

 more than one. 



Mr. C. S. Paine, of Piandolph, Vt., speaks of this "Woodpecker as licing one 

 of tlie most common and familiar, in Vermont, of the family. They are to be 

 met with in hi.s neighboilidod at all seasons of the year, though he is of tlie 

 opinion that many of them go soutli to sjjend the winter. They deposit their 

 eggs aliout the first of June in the very snttg little excavations they prepare. 

 The male l)ird will sometimes prepare a separate apartment for himself, apart 

 from his mate. Air. Paine has taken the male in such a hole by himself, and 

 without any nest or eggs, evidently only prepared for shelter. 



This Woodpecker has a single note or cry, sounding like cliinl-, which it 

 frequently repeats. When it flies, and often when it alights, this cry is 

 more shrill and prolonged. They are very industrions, and are constantly 

 employed in search of insects, chiefly in orchards and the more ojjcn 

 groves. The orchard is its favorite resort, and it is particularly fond of bor- 

 ing the bark of apple-trees for insects. This fact, and the erroneous impres- 

 sion that it taps the trees for the sap, has given to these birds the common 

 name of Sapsuckers, and has caused an unjust ])rejudice against them. 

 So far from doing any injury to the trees, they are of great and nnmixed 

 benefit. Wilson, who was at great p)ains to investigate the matter, declares 

 that he in^-ariably found that those trees that were thus marked by the 

 Woodpecker were uniformly the most thriving and the most productive. 

 " Here, then," adds Wilson, " is a whole sjiecies — I may say genus — of 

 birds, which Providence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit 

 and forest trees from the ravages of vermin, which every day destroy mil- 

 lions of those noxious insects that would otherwise blast the hopes of the 

 husbandman, and even promote the fertility of the tree, and in return 

 are proscribed by those who ought to have 1 leen their protectors." 



The egg of this species is nearly spherical, pure white, and measures .83 by 

 .72 of an inch. 



Picus pubescens, var. gairdneri, Aud. 



GAIEDNEE'S WOODPECKEK. 



Picus gairdneri, ArD. Orii. Biog. V, 1S39, 317. — In. Syn. 1839, 180. — Ib. Birds Amer. 

 IV, 1842, 252 (not figured). — B.MRD, Birds N. Am. IS.'.S, 91, pi. Ixxxv, f. 2, 3. — 

 SrNDKVAU,, Consp. 1866, 17. — Gray, Cat. 1868, ii. — Cooper & Sucklet, 159. — 

 ScLATER, Catal. 1862, 334. — Malh. Monog. Picida;, I, 123. — Cass. P. A. N. S, 1863, 

 201. —Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 377. —Lord, Pr. R. Art. Inst. IV, 1864, 111. 

 Picus meridioTtalis, Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 690 (not of Svvainson). — Gambel, 

 J. A. N. Sc. I, 1847, 55, 105. Picus turati, Malheiibe, Men. Pic. I, 125, tab. 29 

 (small race, 5.50, from Monterey, Cal., nearest puhesceiis). Dryobatcs turati, Cab. & 

 IIein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 65. 2>ryobalcs homorus, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 

 2, 1SB3, 65 (larger, more spotteil style). 



