BIRD ENEMIES OF THE CODLING MOTH. 239 



This little bird finds the concealed larvae under the bark, not from any noise 

 the insect makes; it is not a grub of a beetle having a boring habit and liable 

 to make a sound that might betray its retreat, in seasons of the year when not 

 torpid. A caterpillar makes scarcely an appreciable noise, even when spinning 

 its cocoon, and when that is finished it rests as quietly within as an Egyptian 

 mummy in its sarcophagus. There is no evidence that the downy woodpecker 

 ever makes a mistake; it has some way of judging. The squirrel does not 

 waste time in cracking an empty nut. There is no reason to believe that this 

 bird ever makes holes through these scales merely for pastime or for any 

 other purpose except for food. He knows before he begins that if he works 

 through, just in that spot, he will find a dainty morsel at the bottom of it, as 

 delicious to him as the meat of the nut is to the squirrel. But how does he 

 know? By sounding tap, tap, tap, just as the physician learns the condition 

 of the lungs of his patient by what he calls percussion. . . . Watch him. 

 See how ever and anon he will stop in his quick motions up and down, and 

 give a few taps upon the suspected scale, and then test another and another, 

 until the right sound is communicated to that wonderful ear. 1 



Dr. Trimble examined the stomachs of three downy woodpeckers 

 and found codling-moth larvae in two of them. This was in the 

 sixties; the observation has been confirmed many times since, and 

 the downy has been praised on all sides. Well does he deserve 

 appreciation. In most apple orchards in the United States in fall 

 and winter the sound of the tapping of the downy woodpecker may 

 be heard almost every day, and many a codling-moth larva or pupa 

 do the birds devour. The insects have been found in stomachs of 

 this species from New York, New Jersey, Texas, and California, 

 and no fewer than 20 larvse have been taken from a single stomach. 

 The downy woodpecker not only gets codling worms from the trunks 

 of apple trees, but takes them from the fruit itself. 



F. M. Webster notes that Mrs. S. H. Hine, of Sedan, Ind., a most 

 careful observer of birds, stated that she had seen this species feed- 

 ing on these larvse, extracting them from apples which were hanging 

 to the tree. She had watched a downy woodpecker on a tree in her 

 yard until it worked upon an apple within her reach, and, keeping 

 her eye on this apple, she had approached the tree and picked it. 

 She found that the young larva had made some progress into the 

 fruit, starting from the calyx, but that it had been deftly extracted by 

 the woodpecker and without injury to the fruit. Mr. Webster says 

 further : 



In a conversation with Judge McBride, of Elkhart, Ind., also a careful ob- 

 server of birds, he stated that he had also observed downy woodpeckers ex- 

 tracting the worms from young apples, and he had never observed that in so 

 doing the birds in any way injured the fruit. It seems, then, that the labors 

 of this bird act not only as a preventive, but also afford actual and immediate 

 relief to the infested fruit. 2 



1 Trimble, Isaac P. Treatise on the Insect Enemies of Fruit and Fruit Trees, pp. 

 116-117, 1865. 



2 Insect Life, III, p. 348, Apr., 1891. 



