200 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



spring and summer, it is seen in almost every region. Their return northward in 

 Pennsylvania is about the 1st of May. About the middle of that month, they pre- 

 pare their nests in the large limbs of dead trees, adding no materials to the cavity 

 which they smooth out for the purpose. Sometimes several perforations are found 

 in the same tree ; but living trees are seldom occupied by them. The same tree 

 is employed for years in succession by a pair of these birds. The eggs, usually six 

 in number, are white, marked at the largest end with reddish spots, in which last 

 particular they differ from all others of the genus. The first brood appear about 

 the 20th of June. Both the eggs and young of this, as of many other birds, often 

 fall a prey to the common black-snake. These birds are exceedingly agile, se- 

 curing with ease the beetles seen from their perch. When the fruit is all gone, 

 their facility in detecting insects under the bark of trees is remarkable. Alight- 

 ing upon the trunk, one of them will stand motionless for a few moments ; then 

 he will strike the tree with his bill, and seem to be listening to hear the sound of 

 the borer's auger in the bark, or an inch or more in the wood of the apple-tree. 

 Woodpeckers seem to have been made with an especial reference to the work of 

 destroying borers in all kinds of trees. After a borer has worked his way two 

 inches into an apple-tree, unless he plugs his passage tightly after him, the wood- 

 pecker will thrust in his long, har- 

 poon-formed tongue, as represent- Fig. 76. 

 ed by Fig. 76, and haul the fat borer 

 out and devour him. 



The Hairy Woodpecker, which is 

 often known as the "Sap-sucker," 

 is frequently killed on account of 

 the erroneous notion, cherished by 



Some persons, that this bird pecks A wood-pecker's head with the barbed tongue extended. 



holes through the bark of fruit- 

 trees, to feed on the cambium (see Glossary), when the faithful little bird is taking 

 out grubs. It is a common occurrence to see hundreds of holes like the depres- 

 sion of a large gimlet made in the bark of trees, at the bottom of which the bird 

 found a grub. Had those depredators been unmolested, they would have made 

 a complete honey-comb of the body of the tree in two or three years. Through 

 profound ignorance, many persons often destroy, in a relentless manner, some 

 of their most faithful benefactors. 



The Golden-winged Woodpecker called also the Yellow Hammer, High Holder, 

 Yucker, and Flicker, in other parts of the Union, being seldom known by the 

 name of Golden-winged, employed by naturalists may be said to be one of the 

 least destructive of the birds regarded as injurious to agriculture, while it lives to 

 a great extent on insects and borers that infest fruit and other trees. This bird is 

 especially recognized by ltd flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, which, at a little distance, 

 is like the sound made by a mower as he whets his scythe. At all times animated 

 and happy, these birds are peculiarly so at the love-making season of early spring, 

 when their voices may be heard in the utterance of joyous sounds, and when the 

 coy female is pursued by several males until she has indicated her preference, 

 which produces no strife, as the rejected lovers at once fly off elsewhere to woo. 

 The song of the male, at this season, is not unlike a jovial laugh, nor by any means 

 unmusical. As soon as mated, each pair immediately proceed to excavate the 

 trunk of a tree, and to fashion a place for themselves and their young. The hole 

 is at first made horizontal, and then downward about six or eight inches. They 

 caress each other on the branches, climb about and around the tree with apparent 

 delight, rattle with their bilfs against the tops of the dead branches, chase away 

 the red-heads, and feed abundantly upon ants, beetles, and larvae. Before two 

 weeks have passed, from four to six semi-transparent eggs are laid. Two broods 

 are thus produced in each season. The movements of one of them upon the side 

 of a tree or upon the ground are very quick, though it only alights upon the earth 



