REPORT ON FORESTvS. 



213 



shoots, or they may bore in at the base of the new growth; caus- 

 ing it to wilt ; girdlers find the branches attractive, and a great 

 variety of creatures, chiefly beetles and flies, with a few Hymen- 

 opterous species, perhaps, continue the attack from above. 



Figure 4. A stick of oak, 4 inches in diameter, showing woodpecker holes 

 made to get at a borer inside. 



Now comes another factor the woodpecker and its allies, that 

 make war upon the borers. They peck and hammer away at 

 infested spots, and many a fat borer falls prey to their activity 

 and industry, but wherever they haul out a specimen they leave 

 a hole, and that is, too often, an entrance point for the water, 

 that, after all, is as much to be dreaded in the tree as it is useful 

 when it reaches the roots throiigh the soil. 



