328 HISTORY OF THE 



erated. In tlie fall and winter he associates with the Titmouse, 

 Creeper, etc., both in their wood and orchard excursions, and 

 usually leads the van. Of all our Woodpeckers, none rid the 

 apple trees of so many vermin as this, digging off the moss 

 which the negligence of the proprietor has suffered to accumu- 

 late, and probing every crevice. In fact, the orchard is his 

 favorite resort in all seasons, and his industry is unequaled 

 and almost incessant, which is more than can be said of any 

 other species we have. In the fall he is particularly fond of 

 boring the apple trees for insects, digging a circular hole through 

 the bark just sufficient to admit his bill; after that a second, 

 third, etc., in pretty regular horizontal circles around the body 

 of the tree. These parallel circles of holes are often not more 

 than an inch or an inch and a half apart, and sometimes so 

 close together that I have covered eight or ten of them at once 

 with a dollar. From nearly the surface of the ground up to the 

 first fork, and sometimes far beyond it, the whole bark of many 

 apple trees is perforated in this manner, so as to appear as if 

 made by successive discharges of buckshot, and our little Wood- 

 pecker, the subject of the present account, is the principal per- 

 petrator of this supposed mischief — I say supposed; for so far 

 from these perforations of the bark being ruinous, they are not 

 only harmless, but, I have good reason to believe, really bene- 

 ficial to the health and fertility of the tree. I leave it to the 

 philosophical botanist to account for this, but the fact I am con- 

 fident of. In more than fifty orchards which I, myself, have 

 carefully examined, those trees which were marked by the 

 Woodpecker (for some trees they never touch, perhaps because 

 not penetrated by insects) were uniformly the most thriving, 

 and seemingly the most productive. Many of these were up- 

 wards of sixty years old, their trunks completely covered with 

 holes, while the branches were broad, luxuriant, and loaded with 

 fruit. Of decayed trees, more than three-fourths were un- 

 touched by the Woodpecker. Several intelligent farmers with 

 whom I have convei-sed candidly acknowledged the truth of 

 these observations, and with justice look upon these birds as 

 beneficial; but the most common opinion is that they bore the 



