166 '3%e 'Canadian WoodpecJcers^ 



•an eager hunter of insects, theii* eggs and larvae, in old stumps and old rails, 

 iu rotten branches and crevices of the bark ; having all the characters of the 

 Woodpecker strongly marked. In the mouth of May he retires with his 

 mate to the woods, and either seeks out a branch already hollow, or cuts out 

 an opening himself. In the former case I have known his nest more than 

 five feet distant from the mouth of the hole ; and in the latter he digs first 

 horizontally, if in the body of the tree, six or eight inches, and then down- 

 ward, obtusely, for tv\'ice that distance ; carrying up the chips with his bill, 

 and scraping them out with his feet. They also not unfrequently choose the 

 orchard for breeding in, and even an old stake of the fence, which they 

 excavate for this purpose. The female lays five white eggs, and hatches in 

 June. This species is more numerous than the last in Pennsylvania, and 

 more domestic ; frequently approaching the farm-house and skirts of the 

 to\^Ti. In Philadelphia I have many times observed them examining old 

 jagged trunks of the willow and poplar w^hile people were passing immediately 

 below. Their cry is strong, shrill, and tremulous ; they have also a single 

 •note, or dmck, which they often repeat, in an eager manner, as "they hop 

 ^bout, and dig into the erevices of the tr«e. They inhabit the continent from 

 Hudson's Bay to Carolina and Georgia. 



"The Hairy Woodpecker is nine inches long, and fifteen m extent ; crowiit 

 black ; line over and under the eye, white ; the eye is placed in a black line, 

 that widens as it descends to the back; hind head, scarlet, sometimes iuter- 

 Daixed with black ; nostrils, hid under remarkably thick, bushy, recumbent 

 hairs, or bristles ; under the bill are certain long hairs thrown for- 

 ward and upward ; bill, a bluish horn color, grooved, wedged at 

 the end, straight, and about an inch and a quarter long; touches of 

 black, proceeding from the lower mandible, end in a broad black strip that 

 joins the black on the shoulder ; back, black, divided by a broad, lateral 

 strip of white, the feathers composing which are loose and unwebbed, resem- 

 bling hairSj — ^whence its name ; rump and shoulders of the wing, black ; 

 wings, black, tipped and spotted with white, three rows of spots being visible 

 on the secondaries, and five on the primaries ; greater wing-coverts, also 

 spotted with white ; tail, as in the others, cuneiform, consisting often sb'ong- 

 shafted and pointed feathers, the four middle ones black, the next partially 

 white, the two exterior ones white, tinged at the tip with a brownish burnt 

 color ; tail-coverts, black ; whole lower side, pure white ; legs, feet, and 

 <;laws, light blue, the latter remarkably large and strong ; inside of the 

 mouth, flesh colored ; tongue, pointed, beset with barbs, and capable of being 

 protruded more than an inch and a half ; the os hyodes, in this species, passes 

 on each side of the neck, ascends the skull, passes down towards the nostril^ 

 and is wound round the bone of the right eye, which projects considerably 

 more than the left for its accommodation. The great mass of hah's, that 

 cover the nostril, appears to be designed as a protection to the front of the 

 head, when the bird is engaged in digging holes into the w^ood. The mem- 

 brane which encloses the brain in this, as in all other species of Woodpeckers, 

 ie also of extraordinary strength, no doubt to prevent any bad effects from 

 Solent concussion while the bird is employed in digging for food. The 



