_ 
92 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
off, or alights on another tree, he utters a rather shriller cry, com- 
_ posed of nearly the same kind of note, quickly reiterated. In fall 
and winter, he associates with the Titmouse, Creeper, &c., both in 
their wood and orchard excursions, and usually leads the van. Of 
all our Woodpeckers, none rid the apple-trees of so many vermin 
as this, digging off the moss which the negligence of the proprie- 
tor had suffered to accumulate, and probing every crevice. In 
fact, the orchard is his favorite resort in all seasons; and his indus- 
try is unequalled and almost incessant, which is more than can be 
said of any other species we have. In fall, he is particularly fond 
of boring the apple-trees for insects, digging a circular hole through 
the bark, just sufficient to admit his bill; after that, a second, 
third, &c., in pretty regular horizontal circles round the body of 
the tree: these parallel circles of holes are often not more than an 
inch or an inch and a half apart, and sometimes so close together 
that I have covered eight or ten of them at once with a dollar. 
From nearly the surface of the ground up to the first fork, and 
sometimes far beyond it, the whole bark of many apple-trees is 
perforated in this manner, so as to appear as if made by successive 
discharges of buck-shot ; and our little Woodpecker — the subject 
of the present account—is the principal perpetrator of this sup- 
posed mischief: I say supposed, for, so far from these perforations 
of the bark being ruinous, they are not only harmless, but, I have 
good reason to believe, really beneficial to the health and fertility 
of the tree. I leave it to the philosophical botanist to account for 
this; but the fact I am confident of. In more than fifty orchards 
which I have myself carefully examined, those trees which were 
marked by the Woodpecker (for some trees they never touch, per- 
haps because not penetrated by insects) were uniformly the most 
thriving, and seemingly the most productive. Many of these were 
upwards of sixty years old, their trunks completely covered with 
holes, while the branches were broad, luxuriant, and loaded with 
fruit. Of decayed trees, more than three-fourths were untouched 
by the Woodpecker. Several intelligent farmers, with whom I 
have conversed, candidly acknowledge the truth of these oliserva- 
tions, and with justice look upon these birds as beneficial: but the 
most common opinion is, that they bore the tree to suck the sap, 
and so destroy its vegetation: though pine and other resinous trees, 
