98 TWENTIETH CEWTURY CLASSICS 



flies off or alights on another tree, he ntters a rath(3r 

 shriller cry, composed of nearly the same kind of a note, 

 quickly reiterated. In the fall and winter he associates 

 with the Titmouse, Creeper, etc., 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 

 proprietor has suffered to accumulate, and probing every 

 crevice. In fact the orchard is his favorite resort in all 

 seasons, and his industry is unequaled and almost inces- 

 sant, which is more than can be said of any other species 

 we 'have. In the fall he is particularly fond of boring the 

 apple trees for insects, digging a circular hole through the 

 bark just suflicient to admit his bill ; after that a second, 

 third, etc., in pretty regular horizontal circles around the 

 body of the tree. These parallel circles of holes are often 

 not more than an inch or an inch and a half apart, iand 

 sometimes so close together that I have covered eight or 

 ten of them at once with a dollar. From nearly the sur- 

 face of the ground up to the first fork, and sometimes far 

 beyond it, the whole bark of many apple trees is perfo- 

 rated in this manner, so as to appear as if made by suc- 

 cessive discharges of buckshot, and our little Woodpecker, 

 the subject of the present account, is the principal perpe- 

 trator of this supposed 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 ac- 

 count for this, but the fact I am confident of. In more 

 than fifty orchards which I, myself, have carefully ex- 



