RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 51 



gree of cold, than several others of our Woodpeckers. They 

 are active and vigorous; and being almost continually in search 

 of insects, that injure our forest trees, do not seem to deserve 

 the injurious epithets that almost all writers have given them. 

 It is true, they frequently perforate the timber in pursuit of 

 these vermin, but this is almost always in dead and decaying 

 parts of the tree, which are the nests and nurseries of millions 

 of destructive insects. Considering matters in this light I do not 

 think their services overpaid by all the ears of Indian corn they 

 consume; and would protect them within my own premises as 

 being more useful than injurious. 



