170 GOLDEN-WIXGED WOODPECKEE. 



at not more than six feet from the root. The sagacity of this bird in dis- 

 covering, under a sound bark, a hollow limb or trunk of a tree, and its 

 perseverance in perforating it for the purpose of incubation, are truly 

 surprising ; the male and female alternately relieving and encouraging 

 each other by mutual caresses, renewing their labors for several days, 

 till the object is attained, and the place rendered sufficiently capacious, 

 convenient and secure. At this employment they are so extremely intent, 

 that they may be heard till a very late hour in the evening, thumping 

 like carpenters. I have seen an instance where they had dug first five 

 inches straight forwards, and then downwards more than twice that dis- 

 tance, through a solid black oak. They carry in no materials for their 

 nest, the soft chips, and dust of the wood, serving for this purpose. 

 The female lays six white eggs, almost transparent. The young early 

 leave the nest, and, climbing to the higher branches, are there fed by 

 their parents. 



The food of this bird varies with the season. As the common cher- 

 ries, bird-cherries, and berries of the sour gum, successively ripen, he 

 regales plentifully on them, particularly on the latter ; but the chief 

 food of this species, or that which is most usually found in his stomach, 

 is wood-lice, and the young and larvae of ants, of which he is so immo- 

 derately fond, that I have frequently found his stomach distended with 

 a mass of these, and these only, as large nearly as a plum. For the 

 procuring of these insects, nature has remarkably fitted him. The bills 

 of Woodpeckers, in general, are straight, grooved or channelled, wedge- 

 shaped, and compressed to a thin edge at the end, that they may the 

 easier penetrate the hardest wood ; that of the Golden-winged Wood- 

 pecker is long, slightly bent, ridged only on the top, and tapering almost 

 to a point, yet still retaining a little of the wedge form there. Both, 

 however, are admirably adapted to the peculiar manner each has of pro- 

 curing its food. The former, like a powerful wedge, to penetrate the 

 dead and decaying branches, after worms and insects ; the latter, like a 

 long and sharp pick-axe, to dig up the hillocks of pismires, that inhabit 

 old stumps in prodigious multitudes. These beneficial services would 

 entitle him to some regard from the husbandman, were he not accused, 

 and perhaps not without just cause, of being too partial to the Indian 

 corn, when in that state which is usually called roasting-ears. His 

 visits are indeed rather frequent about this time ; and the farmer, sus- 

 pecting what is going on, steals through among the rows with his gun, 

 bent on vengeance, and forgetful of the benevolent sentiment of the 

 poet ; that 



" Just a8 wide o^ justice he must fall 



Who thinks all made for One, not one for all." 

 But farmers, in general, are not much versed in poetry, and pretty well 



