Merriam on Birds of Lewis County, New York. 3 



Woodpeckers amuse themselves by pounding \ipon such dry hollow 

 trees and hard resonant limbs as multiply the sound tenfold, so 

 that one can, at a distance, readily distinguish them from other 

 members of the family. Before they have been with us three weeks, 

 however, an inward change takes place, and by the middle of May 

 their manners are so different that one would scarcely recognize the 

 species. The migrants have passed on, and those which remain to 

 breed have already given up their idle frolics, and in comparative 

 silence are preparing for the graver task of rearing offspring. 



In the Adirondack region, during the migrations, they outnum- 

 ber all the other species of the family together, and throughout the 

 entire summer are second in numbers only to the Hairy Woodpecker 

 (Picas vi/tosufi). Here they often, in search for insects, strip off the 

 " shag-bark " from the spruce, and it is no uncommon thing, in 

 passing through these primeval forests, to meet with many large 

 trees thus almost completely denuded of their outer bark for nearly 

 the entire length of the trunk. These trees are very conspicuous 

 objects, and never fail to excite the curiosity of straugers, who are 

 much more willing to believe theexisting condition "due to the ravages 

 of the Black Cock of the Woods \Hylatomus pileatus] or Porcupine " 

 (Erethizon dorsati(s) than to the present innocent-looking species. 



In the central district they really do considerable mischief by 

 drilling holes in the bark of apple, thorn-apple, and mountain-ash 

 trees in such a way as to form girdles of punctures, sometimes 

 two feet or more in breadth (up and down), about the trunks and 

 branches. Whether in like manner they affect trees (excepting 

 occasionally a young elm) pertaining to other genera than the one 

 (Pyrm) to which the above belong, I am unable to say ; but the 

 fact of their destroying some of these, notably the apple, and es- 

 pecially in the West, has often been recorded. The holes, which are 

 sometimes merely single punctures, and sometimes squarish spaces 

 (multiple punctures) nearly half an inch across, are placed so near 

 together that, not unfrequently, they cover more of the tree than 

 the remaining bark. Hence, more than half of the bark is some- 

 times removed from the girdled portions, and the balance often 

 dries up and comes off. Therefore it is not surprising that trees 

 which have been extensively girdled generally die, and mountain 

 ash are much more prone to do so than either apple or thorn-apple 

 trees, due, very likely, to their more slender stems. 



The motive which induces this species to operate thus upon 



