Instructive to orchards. 



black and white, and the rest white with black 

 shafts. 



The red-headed woodpecker is a very common 

 bird, and exceedingly destructive to the maize- 

 fields and orchards, picking the ears of maize, 

 and destroying vast quantities of apples. They 

 attack the trees in flocks, and eat so much of the 

 fruit that nothing but the skin is left. In some 

 years they are much more numerous than in 

 others. A premium of twopence per head was 

 formerly paid from the public funds of some of 

 the states, in order, if possible, to extirpate the 

 breed : but this has been much neglected of late. 



They build like the other species in holes 

 which they form in the trees, but generally high 

 from the ground. It is said, the noise that they 

 make with their bills in this operation, may be 

 heard at more than a mile distance. In the win-* 

 ter they are very tame, and are frequently known 

 to come into the houses in the same manner 

 as the redbreast does in England. Their flesh 

 is reckoned very good eating by some people. 

 They remain the whole year in Virginia, Caro- 

 lina, and most other parts of North America, but 

 are by no means seen in such numbers in winter 

 as during summer. 



