THE WOODPECKER. 



107 



by robbery and surprise. If the monkey or 

 the snake can be guarded against, the bird has 

 no other enemies to fear ; for this purpose its 

 nest is built upon the depending points of the 

 most outward branches of a tall tree, such as 

 the banana, or the plantain. On one of those 

 immense trees, is seen the most various and 

 the most inimical assemblage of creatures thai 

 can be imagined. The top is inhabited by 



&c., in pretty regular horizontal circles round the body 

 of the tree ; these parallel circles of holes are often 

 not more than an inch or an inch and a half apart, and 

 sometimes so close together, that I have covered eight 

 or ten of them at once with a dollar. From nearly the 

 surface of the ground up to the first fork, and sometimes 

 far beyond it, the whole bark of many apple-trees is per- 

 forated in this manner, so as to appear as if made by 

 successive discharges of buck-shot; and our little wood- 

 pecker, the subject of the present account, is the principal 

 perpetrator of this supposed mischief. I say supposed, 

 for so far from these perforations of the bark being 

 ruinous, they are not only harmless, but, I have good 

 reason to believe, really beneficial to the health and fer- 

 tility of the tree. I leave it to the philosophical botanist 

 to account for this ; but the fact I am confident of. In 

 more than fifty orchards which I 'have myself carefully 

 examined, those trees which were marked by the wood- 

 pecker (for some trees they never touch, perhaps because 

 not penetrated by insects,) were uniformly the most 

 thriving, and seemingly the most productive ; many of 

 these were upwards of sixty years old, their trunks com- 

 pletely covered with holes, while the branches were 

 broad, luxuriant, and loaded with fruit. Of decayed 

 trees, more than three-fourths were untouched by the 

 woodpecker. Several intelligent farmers, with whom I 

 have conversed, candidly acknowledge the truth of these 

 observations, and with justice look upon these birds as 

 beneficial ; but the most common opinion is, that they 

 bore the trees to suck the sap, and so destroy its vegeta- 

 tion ; though pine and other resinous trees, on the juices 

 of which it is not pretended they feed, are often found 

 equally perforated. Were the sap of the tree their object, 

 the saccharine juice of the birch, the sugar maple, and 

 several others, would be much more inviting, because 

 more sweet and nourishing than that of either the pear 

 or apple-tree ; but I have not observed one mark on the 

 former for ten thousand that may be seen on the latter ; 

 besides, the early part of spring is the season when the 

 sap flows most abundantly ; whereas it is only during 

 the months of September, October, and November, that 

 woodpeckers are seen so indefatigably engaged in orchards, 

 probing every crack and crevice, boring through the 

 bark, and what is worth remarking, chiefly on the south 

 and southwest sides of the tree, for the eggs and larvae 

 deposited there by the countless swarms of summer 

 insects. These, if suffered to remain, would prey upon 

 the very vitals, if I may so express it, of the tree, and in 

 the succeeding summer give birth to myriads more of 

 their race, equally destructive. 



" Here, then, is a whole species, I may say, genus, 

 of birds, which Providence seems to have formed for the 

 protection of our fruit and forest trees from the ravages 

 of vermin, which every day destroy millions of those 

 noxious insects that would otherwise blast the hopes of 

 the husbandman ; and which even promote the fertility 

 of the tree; and, in return, are proscribed by those who 

 ought to have been their protectors; and incitements 

 and rewards held out for their destruction ! Let us 

 examine better into the operations of nature, and many 

 of our mistaken opinions and groundless prejudices will 

 be abandoned for more just, enlarged, and humane 

 modes of thinking." Wilson's American Ornithology. 



monkeys of some particular tribe, that drive 

 off all others; lower down twine about the 

 great trunk numbers of the larger snakes, 

 patiently waiting till some unwary animal 

 comes within the sphere of their activity, and 

 at the edges of the tree hang these artificial 

 nests, in great abundance, inhabited by birds 

 of the most delightful plumage. 



The nest is usually formed in this manner: 

 when the time of incubation approaches, they 

 fly busily about, in quest of a kind of moss, 

 called by the English inhabitants of those 

 countries, old man's beard. It is a fibrous 

 substance, and not very unlike hair, which 

 bears being moulded into any form, and suf- 

 fers being glued together. This therefore 

 the little woodpecker, called by the natives 

 of Brazil, the guiratemga, first glues, by some 

 viscous substance gathered in the forest, to 

 the extremest branch of a tree ; then building 

 downward, and still adding fresh materials to 

 those already procured, a nest is formed, that 

 depends, like a pouch, from the point of the 

 branch : the hole to enter at, is on the side ; 

 and all the interior parts are lined with the 

 finer fibres of the same substance, which com- 

 pose the whole. 



Such is the general contrivance of these 

 hanging nests ; which are made, by some 

 other birds, with still superior art. A little 

 bird of the Grosbeak kind, in the Philippine 

 islands, makes its nest in such a manner that 

 there is no opening but from the bottom. At 

 the bottom the bird enters, and goes up 

 through a funnel like a chimney, till it comes 

 to the real door of the nest, which lies on one 

 side, and only opens into this funnel. 



Some birds glue their nest to the leaf of 

 the banana tree, which makes two sides of 

 their little habitation ; while the other two 

 are artificially composed by their own indus- 

 try. But these, and all of the kind, are 

 built with the same precautions to guard the 

 young against the depredations of monkeys 

 and serpents, which abound in every tree. 

 The nest hangs there before the spoilers, a 

 tempting object, which they can only gaze 

 upon, while the bird flies in and out, without 

 danger or molestation from so formidable a 

 vicinity. 1 



1 The characters of the Nut-hatch tribe are, a bill for 

 he most part straight, having on the lower mandible a 



small angle: small nostrils, covered with bristles: a 

 ihort tongue, horny at the end, and jagged : toes placed 

 ,hree forwards, and one backwards; the middle toe 

 oined closely at the base to both the outer, and the back 

 oe as large as the middle one. In the habits and man- 

 lers of the different species of the nut-hatch, we observe 



a very close alliance to the woodpeckers. Most of them 



leed upon insects ; and some on nuts, whence their 

 English appellation has been acquired. For Slender 



Nut-hatch, see Plate XV. fig. 17. 



The European Nut-hatch. The length of this bird 

 s five inches and three quarters. The bill is strong 



