88 HAIRY WOODPECKEE. 



have been great, for a Woodpecker to cross the Atlantic, yet 

 that having got, on his own shewing, to Siberia, this 'over- 

 land route' removes the said difficulty at once; and Whitby 

 being on our north-east coast, is in favour of the supposition 

 that this course may have been followed by the specimen 

 presently to be spoken of, as well as by the other two 

 previously met with in the same county. 



This Woodpecker is common in North America, where it 

 frequents orchards. 



One of these birds, a female, was shot near Whitby, in 

 Yorkshire, in the beginning of the year 1849, as recorded in 

 the 'Zoologist,' pages 2496-2497, by Mr. Edmund Thomas 

 Higgins, of York. Another was received from Worcestershire, 

 about the year 1846, by W. F. W. Bird, Esq., which there 

 seems no reason to doubt was killed in that county. 



The motto of the midshipman on the mast, '1 aspire,' is 

 in practice adopted by our present subject, as by all the rest 

 of its genus; and doubtless it does often 'swarve the mainmast 

 tree,' the very same 'tall pine' while growing yet in its native 

 forest, which is afterwards to be 'toss'd on the stormy sea' 

 in some goodly man-of-war or portly merchantman: upwards 

 the bird toils in quest of the means to support him in life. 

 The Hairy Woodpecker is by no means shy; frequently ap- 

 proaching the farm-house and the outskirts of the town, and 

 pursuing its search 1'or food in the trees, while people are 

 constantly passing immediately below. 



Its flight is described as 'consisting of alternate risings and 

 sinkings.' 



The food of this species consists of insects and their Iarva3; 

 and these it extracts from fissures in the bark, and holes in 

 branches of trees. 



The note 'is strong, shrill, and tremulous; they have also 

 a single note or 'chuck,' which they often repeat in an eager 

 manner as they hop about and dig into the crevices of the 

 tree.' 



Nidifi cation begins in May, when a branch already hollow 

 is pitched upon, or a fresh opening is made. 'In the former 

 case,' says Wilson, 'I have known his nest more than five 

 feet distant from the mouth of the hole; and, in the latter, 

 he digs first horizontally, if in the body of the tree, six or 

 eight inches, and then downwards, obtusely, for twice that 

 distance; carrying up the chips with his bill, and scraping 

 them out with his feet. They also not unfrequently choose 



