98 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



more particularly. We can hardly take up an agricultural 

 paper, particularly from the "Western States, but that we notice 

 some long account of the depredations of this bird ; and the 

 prejudice is so wide-spread against it that no opportunity is lost 

 for its destruction. I believe that the complaint against it is 

 absolutely unfounded, for if the bird is gifted with a peculiar 

 conformation of the tongue, to enable it to suck or pump out 

 the sap from a tree, why is it not apparent, why does it not, on 

 examination, contain in its stomach quantities of the liber and 

 cambium, instead of insects, like all of its cousins ? Let us see 

 what those great fathers of American ornithology, Wilson and 

 Audubon, testify to with regard to this bird, and then see how 

 far those . are justified whose prejudices carry them to the 

 destruction of this bird. 



Audubon says : — " The yellow-bellied woodpecker prefers the 

 interior of the forest during the spring and summer, seldom 

 showing itself near the habitations of man at those seasons. It 

 is a shy and suspicious bird, spending most of its time in trees 

 which have close branches and dense foliage. I have never 

 observed one of these birds on the ground. Their food consists 

 of wood-worms and beetles, to which they add small grapes and 

 various berries during autumn and winter, frequently hanging 

 head downwards at the extremity of a small bunch of grapes." 



Wilson says : — " This beautiful species is one of our resident 

 birds (in Pennsylvania.) It visits our orchards in the month of 

 October in great numbers, is occasionally seen during the whole 

 winter and spring, but seems to seek the depths of the forest to 

 rear its young in, for during summer it is rarely seen among our 

 settlements ; and even in the intermediate woods I have seldom 

 met with it in that season." He continues, " the habits of this 

 species are similar to those of the hairy and downy woodpeckers, 

 with which it generally associates." In describing it, he says : 

 " The tongue is flat, horny for half an inch at the tip, pointed, 

 and armed along its sides with reflected barbs. The principal 

 food of these birds is insects, and they seem particularly fond of 

 frequenting orchards, boring the trunks of the apple-trees in 

 their eager search after them. On opening them, the stomach 

 is found generally filled with fragments of beetles and gravel." 

 He says : — " The habits of this species are the same as those of 

 the hairy and downy woodpeckers." Of the latter, he says : — 



