92 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



oif, or alights on another tree, he utters a rather shriller cry, com- 

 posed of nearly the same kind of note, quickly reiterated. In fall 

 and winter, he associates with the Titmouse, Creeper, &c., both in 

 tlieir 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 proprie- 

 tor had suifered to accumulate, and probing every crevice. In 

 fact; the orchard is his favorite resort in all seasons ; and his indus- 

 try is unequalled and almost incessant, which is more than can be 

 said of any other species we have. In 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, &c., in pretty regular horizontal circles round 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 dollai*. 

 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 buck-shot; and our little Woodpecker — the subject 

 of the present account — is the principal perpetrator of this sup- 

 posed 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 beneficial to the health and fertility 

 of the tree. I leave it to the philosophical botanist to account for 

 this ; but the fact I am confident of. In more than fifty orchards 

 which I have myself carefully examined, those trees which were 

 marked by the Woodpecker (for some trees they never touch, per- 

 haps because not penetrated by insects) were uniformly the most 

 thriving, and seemingly the most productive. Many of these were 

 upwards 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 untouched 

 by the Woodpecker. Several intelligent farmers, with whom I 

 have conversed, candidly acknowledge the truth of these observa- 

 tions, and with justice look upon these birds as beneficial : but the 

 most common opinion is, that they bore the tree to suck the sap, 

 and so destroy its vegetation : though pine and other resinous trees, 



