104 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



In our climate, this bird is contented with 

 such a wainscot habitation as has been des- 

 cribed for its young ; but in the warmer re- 

 gions of Guinea and Brazil, they take a very 

 different method to protect and hatch their 

 nascent progeny. (For Megellannic Wood- 



the sound and healthy tree is the least object of his atten- 

 tion. The diseased, infested with insects, and hastening 

 to putrefaction, are his favourites; there the deadly 

 crawling enemy have formed a lodgement between the 

 bark and tender wood, to drink up the very vital part of 

 the tree. It is the ravages of these vermin which the 

 intelligent proprietor of the forest deplores, as the sole 

 perpetrators of the destruction of his timber. Would 

 it be believed that the larvre of an insect, or fly, no 

 larger than a grain of rice, should silently, and in one 

 season, destroy some thousand acres of pine trees, many 

 of them from two to three feet in diameter, and a hun- 

 dred and fifty feet high ! Yet whoever passes along the 

 high road from Georgetown to Charleston, in South Ca- 

 rolina, about twenty miles from the former place, can 

 have striking and melancholy proofs of this fact. In 

 some places the whole woods, as far as you can see around 

 you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-looking 

 arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling 

 in ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture 

 of desolation. And yet ignorance and prejudice stub- 

 bornly persist in directing their indignation against the 

 bird now before us, the constant and mortal enemy of 

 these very vermin, as if the hand that probed the wound 

 to extract its cause, should be equally detested with that 

 which inflicted it; or as if the thief-catcher should be 

 confounded with the thief. Until some effectual preven- 

 tive or more complete mode of destruction can be de- 

 vised against these insects, and their larvse, I would 

 humbly suggest the propriety of protecting, and receiving 

 with proper feelings of gratitude, the services of this and 

 the whole tribe of woodpeckers, letting the odium of 

 guilt fall to its proper owners. 



" In looking over the accounts given of the ivory, 

 billed woodpecker by the naturalists of Europe, I find it 

 asserted, that it inhabits from New Jersey to Mexico. 

 I believe, however, that few of them are ever seen to 

 the north of Virginia, and very few of them even in that 

 state. The first place I observed this bird at, when on 

 my way to the south, was about twelve miles north of 

 Wilmington in North Carolina. Having wounded it 

 slightly in the wing, on being caught, it uttered a loudly 

 reiterated and most piteous note, exactly resembling the 

 violent crying of a young child ; which terrified my horse 

 so, as nearly to have cost me my life. It was distressing 

 to hear it. I carried it with me in the chair, under 

 cover, to Wilmington. In passing through the streets, 

 its affecting cries surprised every one within hearing, 

 particularly the females, who hurried to the doors and 

 windows with looks of alarm and anxiety. I drove on, 

 and, on arriving at the piazza of the hotel, where I in- 

 tended to put up, the landlord came forward, and a num- 

 ber of other persons who happened to be there, all equally 

 alarmed at what they heard; this was greatly increased 

 by my asking, whether he could furnish me with accom- 

 modations for myself and my baby. The man looked 

 blank and foolish, while the others stared with still great- 

 er astonishment. After diverting myself for a minute 

 or two at their expense, I drew my woodpecker from 

 under the cover, and a general laugh took place. I took 

 him up stairs and locked him up in my room, while I 

 went to see my horse taken care of. In less than an hour 

 I returned, and, on opening the door, he set up the same 

 distressing shout, which now appeared to proceed from grief 

 that he had been discovered in his attempts at escape. 

 lie had mounted along the side of the window, nearly 



pecker, see Plate XVI. fig. 36.) A traveller 

 who walks into the forests of these countries, 

 among the first strange objects that excite 

 curiosity, is struck with the multitude of birds' 

 nests hanging at the extremity of almosl 

 every branch. Many other kinds of birds 



as high as the ceiling, a little below which he had be- 

 gun to break through. The bed was covered with large 

 pieces of plaster ; the lath was exposed for at least fifteen 

 inches square, and a hole large enough to admit the fist, 

 opened to the weather-boards ; so that in less than 

 another hour he would certainly have succeeded in mak- 

 ing his way through. I now tied a string round his 

 leg, and, fastening it to the table, again left him. 1 

 wished to preserve his life, and had gone ofl' in search 

 of suitable food for him. As I re-ascended the stairs I 

 heard him again hard at work, and on entering had the 

 mortification to perceive that he had almost entirely 

 ruined the mahogany table to which he was fastened, and 

 on which he had wreaked his whole vengeance. While 

 engaged in taking a drawing, he cut me severely in 

 several places, and, on the whole, displayed such a noble 

 and unconquerable spirit, that I was frequently tempted 

 to restore him to his native woods. He lived with me 

 nearly three days, but refused all sustenance, and I wit- 

 nessed his death with regret." 



Gold-winged Woodpecker. " In rambling through 

 the woods one day," continues Wilson, "1 happened to 

 shoot one of these birds, and wounded him slightly on 

 the wing. Finding him in full feather, and seemingly 

 but little hurt, I took him home, and put him into a 

 large cage, made of willows, intending to keep him in 

 my own room, that we might become better acquainted. 

 As soon as he found himself inclosed on all sides, he lost 

 no time in idle fluttering, but, throwing himself against 

 the bars of the cage, began instantly to demolish the wil- 

 lows, battering them with great vehemence, and uttering 

 a loud piteous kind of cackling, similar to that of a hen 

 when she is alarmed, and takes to wing. Poor Baron 

 Trenck never laboured with more eager diligence at the 

 walls of his prison, than this son of the forest in his ex- 

 ertions for liberty ; and he exercised his powerful bill 

 with such force, digging into the sticks, seizing and 

 shaking them so from side to side, that he soon opened 

 for himself a passage; and though I repeatedly repaired 

 the breach, and barricaded every opening, in the best 

 manner I could, yet on my return into the room, I 

 always found him at large, climbing up the chairs, or 

 running about the floor, where, from the dexterity of Ins 

 motions, moving backward, forward, and sidewise, with 

 the same facility, it became difficult to get hold of him 

 again. Having placed him in a strong wire cage, he 

 seemed to give up all hopes of making his escape, and 

 soon became very tame; fed on young ears of Indian 

 corn ; refused apples, but ate the berries of the sour gum 

 greedily, small winter grapes, and several other kinds of 

 berries; exercised himself frequently in climbing, or 

 rather hopping perpendicularly along the sides of the 

 cage; and, as evening drew on, fixed himself in a high 

 hanging, or perpendicular position, and slept with his 

 head in his wing. As soon as dawn appeared, even 

 before it was light enough to perceive him distinctly 

 across the room, he descended to the bi.ttom of the cage, 

 and began his attack on the ears of Indian corn, rapping 

 so loud, as to be heard from every room in the house. 

 After this he would sometimes resume his former posi- 

 tion, and take another nap. He was beginning to be- 

 come very amusing, and even sociable, when, after a 

 lapse of several weeks, he became drooping, and died, 

 as I conceived, from the effects of his wound." 



Red-headed Woodpecker. "There is perhaps no 

 bird in Norih America more universally known than 



