derive from Woodpeckers. 323 



of the lower creation. Your readers are all more or less natu- 

 ralists : their business compels them to study and observe the 

 phenomena of vegetation ; and, in taking care of their plants, 

 they become intimately acquainted with the economy of many 

 insects. Some of the insect tribes are favourable to the horti- 

 culturist; such as the different species of the coccinella, or 

 lady-bird, which live on the eggs and young, and even on the 

 full grown aphides, or green fly ; thereby doing essential service 

 in checking the increase of those pernicious insects. The 

 gardener also knows his friends and his foes among the feathered 

 tribes. He dislikes and scares away those which devour his 

 buds, his seeds, seedlings, or fruit; and he encourages, or 

 should encourage, those which live entirely on the eggs or larvae 

 of those insects which prove to be noxious " worms in the 

 bud." 



In the exercise of our dominion over the " worms in the 

 dust," and over the " fowls of the air," much discrimination is 

 requisite in judging our friends and foes. Many are condemned 

 for acts which they do not, or cannot, commit ; and accused of 

 depredations of which they are guiltless. When a proprietor, 

 who is not also a naturalist, walks in his orchard, or in his 

 woods, and observes a round hole in the trunk of an aged apple 

 or pear tree, or in a lofty oak or elm, he enquires of his gar- 

 dener or forester the cause of such defects in his trees. They 

 naturally and truly answer that these ceillet-holes are the work 

 of the woodpeckers. The master immediately orders all the 

 woodpeckers to be shot : and these orders are often too im- 

 plicitly obeyed, as is evident from the ranks of these beautiful 

 victims, everywhere seen nailed up on the walls of the keeper's 

 lodge. 



I am interested in the fate of those really harmless birds, 

 and would fain put in a word in their favour; for, after an 

 acquaintance of many years, I am perfectly convinced that, 

 instead of being destructive to timber, they are constantly doing 

 all they can to preserve it, by living solely on the insects and 

 their larvae which breed in and live on the wood. 



There are four species of woodpeckers in this country : the 

 most common of the three is the largest, namely, Picus viridis, 

 the green, or laughing, woodpecker ; next there is the P. major, 

 the greater spotted woodpecker; the P. medius, the less spotted 

 woodpecker; and the P. minor, the least spotted woodpecker. The 

 two last are rather rare ; and, as they mostly feed at the tops of 

 lofty trees, are but seldom seen. Their manner of life is similar; 

 all preying on wood insects, and nestling in holes of trees. 

 They have but few notes, and these are far from musical. The 

 laugh of the green one, being a love-call, may be intended for 

 a song ; but it is nearly as harsh as the scream of a peacock, 



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