20 APPLE-TRUNK BORER DESTROYED BY BIRDS. 



larvse. As these worms place themselves under the bark, down 

 at the very surface of the ground, their lurking place can only be 

 found by a bird which makes its examinations with its head down- 

 wards ; and the slender, extensile, flexible, barbed tongue of this 

 bird was evidently constructed to enable it to probe the holes and 

 explore the crevices and cavities of the bark, and transfix and 

 drag from its cell any worm which is found reposing there. Es- 

 quire Baldwin tells me that in numerous instances he has found 

 the flat cavity excavated by the borer under the bark, without 

 any vestiges of a worm in it, and has been wholiy at a loss to ac- 

 count for its disappearance at this time, when its burrow is not 

 half completed. My neighbor, Peter Reid, who has devoted much 

 attention to our birds and their habits, informs me he has repeat- 

 edly noticed the woodpecker remaining some considerable time 

 down at the very root of the Apple tree, busily occupied in some 

 operation at that particular part. These facts we think clearly 

 elucidate each other, and render it evident that the woodpecker 

 is the most formidable natural enemy to the Apple-tree borer 

 which exists. And whether such a war of extermination should 

 be waged against this bird, as has been declared by high authority 

 (Kirtlands's Zool. 0., p. 179), we leave to be considered hereafter. 



It is probable, from what is said of the next species, that this 

 also is subject to the attacks of Hymenopterous or Bee-like para- 

 sites, which feed upon and destroy the worm, although I am not 

 aware that any of these have as yet been actually discovered 

 preying upon it. 



On glancing over the various remedies which have been pro- 

 posed, and which may be met with in our agricultural papers, for 

 the destruction of this borer, we are forcibly impressed with the 

 fact, that, although these publications are doing great good in our 

 community, they still unwittingly circulate many things that are 

 foolish, and some that are pernicious. As an instance, we may 

 cite the following : "One of the surest means to destroy the borers 

 in Apple trees, is to make a solution of potash, two pounds to a 

 gallon of water, which must be injected into the hole where the 

 borer has entered, by means of a syringe holding half a pint." 

 Now, we are not without suspicions that so strong a solution of 

 caustic potash would destroy not only the borer, but the tree 



