188 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
the highest degree. We see that a large hole is cut 
In a tree; we find that the woodpecker is the ope- 
rator; and we leap to the conclusion that the wood- 
pecker kills the tree. 
It would be as reasonable were we, finding a phy- 
sician in the sick-room of a patient, to assume that 
he must have been the cause of the disease. Herve 
is an invalid; ¢heve is a doctor. Can anything be 
more plain ? 
The true facts of the case are these :— 
A tree, from some unknown cause, becomes feeble 
and sickly, and shows signs here and there of in- 
cipient decay. Before many weeks have passed, it 
is attacked by various wood-boring beetles, whose 
habit it is to tunnel through and through the bark 
and wood of weakly trees, and so accelerate their de- 
struction in order to make place for a healthy 
successor. 
But perhaps the infested tree, although unhealthy 
and out of condition, is yet possessed of suffi- 
cient recuperative power to enable it to regain health 
and strength, were the diseased parts but re- 
moved in time. ‘Then comes the woodpecker, cuts 
away the useless and unhealthy wood, kills the 
insects which had already begun to further the work 
of destruction, and so, very likely, saves a fine piece 
of timber from untimely decay. Absolutely sound 
wood the bird never attacks, for the simple reason 
that insects are not there to be found; and when- 
ever the bird is seen pecking busily away, we may 
safely assume that its proceedings are akin to those 
