68 THE WOODPECKER, 



time when death parts them from each other. They hunt 

 for their food in comjoany ; and in company they devour it. 

 You may see them flying together, whirling and wheeling 

 in the "infinite azure," screaming with all their force, 

 playing and even indulging in mimic battles with each 

 other ; and finally retiring to rest on the dry branches of a 

 tree, where they have constructed their rude eyrie. 



In the American forests, as we have already observed, 

 the tap of the Woodpecker is a frequent and familiar sound. 

 Wherever this bird is met with, and whatever the sjDecies, 

 his habits are always the same. He inhabits the wooded 

 country-side, and searches in every direction upon the 

 trunks and branches of trees for the insects which form the 

 chief part of his food. For this purpose he is continually 

 " sounding " the bark with his strong bill, in order to dis- 

 cover the soft or rotten places tenanted by bark-feeding 

 insects. On meeting with such a sj)ot, he digs vigorously 

 into the bark, and having fashioned a sufficiently wide 

 opening, thrusts in his barbed and glutinous tongue to 

 efiect the capture of his prey. 



It has been graphically said that the tree is all in all to 

 the woodpecker ; it is a castle, a pasture, a larder, a nur- 

 sery, an alarm-drum, and a lute. When Nature revives 

 under the bland influence of the joyous spring, and the 

 woods assume their delicate veil of greenery, and all life is 

 sensible of the quick vernal impulse, the w^oodjDecker in the 

 large cavity of the old forest-tree, and the eggs or larvae in 

 the little one, are both conscious of the stirring of a fresh 

 vitality ; and the woodpecker sallies forth, exultant, and 



