BIRDS OF Kj^NSAS 97 



similar in their actions and habits to the Hairy, but more 

 social and less fearful of man. Wilson says: 



^^ The principal characteristics of this little bird are 

 diligence, familiarity, perseverance, and strength and en- 

 ergy in the head and muscles of the neck which are truly 

 astonishing. Mounted on the infected brancb of an old 

 apple tree, where insects have lodged their corroding and 

 destructive brood in crevices between the bark and wood, 

 he labors sometimes for half an hour incessantly at the 

 same spot before he has succeeded in dislodging and de- 

 stroying them. At these times you may walk up pretty 

 close to the tree, and even stand immediately below 'it, 

 within five or six feet of the bird, without in the least em- 

 barrassing him. The strokes of his bill are distinctly 

 heard several hundred yards off, and I have known him 

 to be at work for two hours together on the same tree. 

 Buff on calls this ^ incessant toil and slavery,' their atti- 

 tude ^ a painful posture,' and their life ' a dull and in- 

 sipid existence' — expressions improper because untrue, 

 and absurd because contradictory. The posture is that 

 for which the whole organization of his frame is partic- 

 ularly adapted, and though to a Wren or a Hummingbird 

 the labor would be toil and slavery, yet to him it is, I 

 am convinced, as pleasant and amusing as the sports of 

 the chase to the hunter, or the sucking of flowers to the 

 Hummingbird. The eagerness with which he traverses 

 the upper and lower sides of the branches, the cheerful- 

 ness of his Q,Yj and the liveliness of his motions wliile 

 digging in the tree and dislodging the vermin, justifies 

 this belief. He has a single note, or ^ Chink,' which, like 

 the former species, he frequently repeats; and when he 



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