40 DOWNY WOODPECKER. 



and muscles of the neck, which are truly astonishing. Mpunted 

 on the infected branch of an old apple-tree, where insects have 

 lodged their corroding and destructive brood, in crevices be- 

 tween the bark and wood, he labours sometimes, for half an 

 hour, incessantly at the same spot, before he has succeeded in 

 dislodging and destroying them. At these times you may walk 

 up pretty close to the tree, and even stand immediately below 

 it, within five or six feet of the bird, without in the least em- 

 barrassing him; the strokes of his bill are distinctly heard seve- 

 ral hundred yards off; and I have known him to be at work for 

 two hours together on the same tree. Buffon calls this, " inces- 

 sant toil and slavery," their attitude, " a painful posture," 

 and their life, "a dull and insipid existence;" expressions im- 

 proper, because untrue; and absurd, because contradictory. The 

 posture is that for which the whole organization of his frame is 

 particularly adapted; and though to a Wren, or a Humming- 

 bird, the labour would be both toil and slavery, yet to him it 

 is, I am convinced, as pleasant, and as amusing, as the sports 

 of the chase to the hunter, or the sucking of flowers to the 

 Humming-bird. The eagerness with which he traverses the 

 upper and lower sides of the branches; the cheerfulness of his 

 cry, and the liveliness of his motions while digging into the 

 tree, and dislodging the vermin, justify this belief. He has a 

 single note, or chink, which, like the former species, he fre- 

 quently repeats. And when he flies off, or alights on another 

 tree, he utters a rather shriller cry, composed of nearly the same 

 kind of note, quickly reiterated. In fall and winter, he associates 

 with the Titmouse, Creeper, &c. both in their wood and orchard 

 excursions; and usually leads the van. Of all our Woodpeckers, 

 none rid the apple-trees of so many vermin as this, digging off 

 the moss, which the negligence of the proprietor had suffered 

 to accumulate, and probing every crevice. In fact, the orchard 

 is his favourite resort in all seasons; and his industry is une- 

 qualled, and almost incessant, which is more than can be said 

 of any other species we have. In Fall, he is particularly fond of 

 boring the apple-trees for insects, digging a circular hole through 



