THE FAILURE OF ORCHARDS, AND IT IS REMEDY. 199 



. There are several kinds of woodpeckers of great value to pomolo- 

 gists, namely, the Red-headed Woodpecker, the Hairy Woodpecker, and the Gold- 

 en-winged Woodpecker. Fig. 75 represents the parent bird feeding a grub to a full- 

 grown fledgeling. At the lower part of the picture, a young woodpecker, almost 

 large enough to try his pinions, is represented as looking out on the world from 

 his nest in an old tree. Although woodpeckers will eat good fruit, they should 

 not be destroyed, as they perform an excellent service in exterminating noxious 

 insects while the fruit is growing. We have never known them to do any other 



Fig. T5. 



RED-UEADEl) WOOUPECKEB8. 



damage than to eat cherries and mulberries. They are so shy, that it is not diffi- 

 cult to frighten them away from fruit-trees by means of a few men of straw, sus- 

 pended from the end of a long pole, so that the wind will keep the images in mo- 

 tion. The length of this bird is nine and a half to ten inches ; alar extent, seven- 

 teen inches ; bill, light blue ; legs, bluish-green ; iris, dark-hazel ; head, neck, and 

 throat, crimson ; back, wings, and tail, black, with bluish reflections ; secondaries, 

 rump, lower part of the back, and under parts of the body, white. Female, less 

 brightly colored ; young, head and neck dull gray, varied with blackish. 

 The Red-headed Woodpecker is well known throughout the United States. In 



