512 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



describes the entrance to the excavation as often being at right angles to the 

 trunk for a few inches before it descends. He states that in the Southern 

 and Middle States two broods are raised in a season, farther nortli seldom 

 more than one. 



Mr. C. S. Paine, of Eandolph, Vt., speaks of this Woodpecker as being one 

 of the most common and familiar, in Vermont, of the family. They are to be 

 met with in his neighborhood at all seasons of the year, though he is of the 

 opinion that many of them go south to spend the winter. They deposit their 

 eggs about the first of June in the very snug little excavations they prepare. 

 The male bird will sometimes prepare a separate apartment for himself, apart 

 from his mate. Mr. Paine has takeir the male in such a hole by himself, and 

 without any nest or eggs, evidently only prepared for shelter. 



This Woodpecker has a single note or cry, sounding like chink, which it 

 frequently repeats. When it flies, and often when it alights, this cry is 

 more shrill and prolonged. They are very industrious, and are constantly 

 employed in search of insects, chiefly in orchards and the more open 

 groves. The orchard is its favorite resort, and it is particularly fond of bor- 

 ing the bark of apple-trees for insects. This fact, and the erroneous impres- 

 sion that it taps the trees for the sap, has given to these birds the common 

 name of Sapsuckers, and has caused an unjust prejudice against them. 

 So far from doing any injury to the trees, they are of great and unmixed 

 benefit. Wilson, who was at great pains to investigate the matter, declares 

 that he invariably found that those trees that were thus marked by the 

 Woodpecker were uniformly the most thriving and the most productive. 

 " Here, then," adds Wilson, " is a whole species — I may say genus — of 

 birds, which Providence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit 

 and forest trees from the ravages of vermin, which every day destroy mil- 

 lions of those noxious insects that would otherwise blast the hopes of the 

 husbandman, and even promote the fertility of the tree, and in return 

 are proscribed by those who ought to have been their protectors." 



The egg of this species is nearly spherical, pure white, and measures .83 by 

 .72 of an inch. 



Picus pubescens, var. gairdneri, Aud. 



GAIRDNER'S WOODPECKER. 



Picus gairdneri, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 317. — Ib. Syn. 1839, 180. — 1b. Birds Amer. 

 IV, 1842, 252 (not figured). — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1838, 91, pi. Ixxxv, f. 2, 3. — 

 SuNDEVALL, Consp. 1866, 17. — Gray, Cat. 1868, 44. — CoorER & Suckley, 159. — 

 SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 334. — Malh. Monog. Picidse, I, 123. — Cass. P. A. N. S, 1863, 

 201. —Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 377. — Lord, Pr. R. Art. Inst. IV, 1864, 111. 

 Picics meridionalis, Nutt. Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 690 (not of Swainson). — Gambel, 

 J. A. N. Sc. I, 1847, 55, 105. Picus turati, Malherbe, Mon. Pic. I, 125, tab. 29 

 (small race, 5.50, from Monterey, Cal., i\ea.vfis.t pubescens). Dryohates turati, Cab. & 

 IIein. Mus. Hein. IV, 2, 1863, 65. Drijohatcs homorus, Cab. & Hein. Mus. Hein. IV, 

 2, 1863, 65 (larger, more spotted style). 



