THE DOWNY WOODPECKER. 91 



with ; but the House Wren, who also builds in the hollow of a 

 tree, but who is neither furnished with the necessary tools nor 

 strength for excavating such an apartment for himself, allows the 

 woodpeckers to go on till he thinks it will answer his purpose, 

 then attacks them with violence, and generally succeeds in driving 

 them off. I saw, some weeks ago, a striking example of this, 

 where the Woodpeckers we are now describing, after commencing 

 in a cherry-tree, within a few yards of the house, and having made 

 considerable progress, were turned out by the Wren. The former 

 began again on a pear-tree in the garden, fifteen or twenty yards 

 off, whence, after digging out a most complete apartment, and one 

 egg being laid, they were once more assaulted by the same imper- 

 tinent intruder, and finally forced to abandon the place. 



" The principal characteristics of this little bird are diligence, 

 familiarity, perseverance, and a strength and energy in the head 

 and muscles of the neck which are truly astonishing. Mounted on 

 the infected branch of an old apjile-tree, where insects have lodged 

 their corroding and destructive brood in crevices between the bark 

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

 same spot, before he has succeeded in dislodging and destroying 

 them. At these times, you may walk up pretty close to the tree, 

 and even stand immediately below it, within five or six feet of the 

 bird, without in the least embarrassing him. The strokes of his 

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

 known him to be at work for two hours together on the same tree. 

 Buffon calls this ' incessant toil and slavery ; ' their attitude, ' a 

 painful posture ; ' and their life, ' a dull and insipid existence,' — 

 expressions improper because untrue, and absurd because con- 

 tradictory. The posture is that for which the whole organization 

 is particularly adapted ; and though to a Wren or a Humming- 

 bird the labor would be both toil and slavery, yet to him it is, I 

 am convinced, as pleasant and as amusing as the sports of the 

 chase to the hunter, or the sucking of flowers to the Humming- 

 bird. The eagerness with which he traverses the upper and lower 

 sides of the branches, the cheerfulness of his cry, and the liveli- 

 ness of his motions while digging into the tree and dislodging the 

 vermin, justify this belief. He has a single note, or chink, which, 

 like the former species, he frequently repeats ; and when he flies 



