442 WOODPECKERS, 



cultivated tracts ; the scene of his dominion is the lonely 

 forest, amidst trees of the greatest magnitude. His reiterated 

 trumpeting note, somewhat similar to the high tones of the 

 clarinet {^pait pait pait paii) , is heard soon after day, and until 

 a late morning hour, echoing loudly from the recesses of the 

 dark cypress- swamps, where he dwells in domestic security 

 without showing any impertinent or necessary desire to quit 

 his native solitary abodes. Upon the giant trunk and moss- 

 grown arms of this colossus of the forest, and amidst almost 

 inaccessible and ruinous piles of mouldering logs, the high, 

 rattling clarion and rapid strokes of this princely Woodpecker 

 are often the only sounds which vibrate through and commu- 

 nicate an air of life to these dismal wilds. His stridulous, 

 interrupted call, and loud, industrious blows may often be 

 heard for more than half a mile, and become audible at vari- 

 ous distances as the elevated mechanic raises or depresses his 

 voice, or as he flags or exerts himself in his laborious employ- 

 ment. His retiring habits, loud notes, and singular occupa- 

 tion, amidst scenes so savage yet majestic, afford withal a 

 peculiar scene of solemn grandeur on which the mind dwells 

 for a moment with sublime contemplation, convinced that 

 there is no scene in Nature devoid of harmonious consistence. 

 Nor is the performance of this industrious hermit less remark- 

 able than the peals of his sonorous voice or the loud choppings 

 of his powerful bill. He is soon surrounded with striking 

 monuments of his industry ; like a real carpenter (a nick-name 

 given him by the Spainards), he is seen surrounded with cart- 

 loads of chips and broad flakes of bark which rapidly accumu- 

 late round the roots of the tall pine and cypress where he has 

 been a few hours employed ; the work of half a dozen men 

 felling trees for a whole morning would scarcely exceed the 

 pile he has produced in quest of a single breakfast upon those 

 insect larvae which have already, perhaps, succeeded in dead- 

 ening the tree preparatory to his repast. Many thousand 

 acres of pine-trees in the Southern States have been destroyed 

 in a single season by the insidious attacks of insects which in 

 the dormant state are not larger than a grain pf ricQ- It 



