OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 129 



tapping on the trunks and branches of trees. It is less wild 

 and more domestic than most of its kin, entering our or- 

 chards and gardens in its foraging excursions, and even 

 gleaning in the maples that line our principal thoroughfares. 

 With indefatigable diligence, it pursues its laborious task 

 almost unintermittingly from morning until night. So in- 

 tent is it upon this business, that it scarcely heeds the pres- 

 ence of human beings when but a few paces away, and can 

 only be deterred therefrom by threatened danger. But then, 

 we have known it instead of flying to a great distance, con- 

 fidently settle upon an adjoining tree, and pursue its w r onted 

 task as though nothing had occurred. A few r minutes subse- 

 quently it has been seen to repair to the identical tree from 

 which it had been cruelly driven. During the dreary winter 

 months, these birds are more generally noticed as isolated 

 individuals ; and it is only on the approach of warmer 

 weather that the sexes begin to consort with each other. At 

 this period, it is not uncommon to meet with individuals both 

 of pubcsce ns and Sphvrapicits varius upon the same tree, 

 within a short distance of each other. The utmost good 

 feeling invariably prevails. This meeting, although acciden- 

 tal, is sufficient to show the perfect harmony which exists 

 among these three species. 



In gleaning for food, these birds are chiefly arboreal, 

 although we have occasionally noticed them upon the rails 

 of fences to which the bark is still adherent, and also upon 

 the ground. Like most of its family relatives, its movements 

 along the branches and trunks of trees are performed in a 

 somewhat circuitous manner: the birds stopping at some- 

 what regular intervals to tap upon the bark and even the 

 solid wood, or to thrust their tongue into the creviced bark. 

 Like the Nuthatch and others, it often hangs head-downwards 

 from the under surface of a branch, and performs its accus- 

 tomed labors with as much ease and skill as in comparatively 

 safer situations. Its food consists of the larvae and pupae of 

 insects which eke out an existence in the outer woody 

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