180 HISTORY OF 



bird has nothing to apprehend from man. The parent is care- 

 less how much the nest is exposed to general notice ; satisfied if 

 it be out of the reach of those rapacious creatures that live by 

 robbery and surprise. If the monkey or the snake can be 



tag with eai^h other, and amusing the passenger with their gambols. Their 

 note or cry is slirill and lively, and so much resembles that of a species of 

 tree-frog, wliich frequents the same tree, that it is sometimes difficult to dis- 

 tinguish the one from the other. 



" Such are the vicious traits, if I may so spe.nk, in the cliaracter of the red- 

 headed woodpecker ; and I doubt not but, from wliat has been said on this 

 Bubject, that some readers would consider it .iieritorions to exterminate the 

 whole of this tribe as a nuisance : and, in fact, the legislature of some of 

 our provinces, in former times, offered premiums to the amoinit of twopence 

 per head for their destruction. But let us not condemn the species iinlieard : 

 they exist; they must therefore be necessary. If their merits and useful- 

 ness be found, on e.Kamination, to preponderate against tlieir vices, let vis 

 avail ourselves of the former, wliile we guard as well as we can against the 

 latter. 



" Though this bird occasionally regales himself on fruit, yet his natural 

 and most usual food is insects, particularly those numerous and destructive 

 species that penetrate the bark and body of the tree to deposite their eggs 

 and larvae, the latter of which are well known to make immense havoc. 

 Tliat insects are his natural food is evident from the construction of his wedge, 

 formed bill, the length, elasticity, and figure of his tongue, and the strength 

 and position of his claws; as well as from his usual habits. In fact, insects form 

 at least two- thirds of his subsistence ; and his stomach is scarcely ever found 

 without them. He searches forthem with a dexterity and intelligence, I may 

 safely say, more than human; he perceives, by the exterior appearance of 

 the hark, where they lurk below ; when he is dubious, he rattles vehemently 

 on the outside with his bill, and his acute ear distinguishes the terrified ver- 

 min shrinking «'itJiinto their inmost retreats, where his pointed and barbed 

 tongue soon reaches them. The masses of bugs, caterpillars, and other 

 larvae, which I have taken from the stomachs of these birds, have often 

 surprised me. These larva;, it should be remembered, feed not only on the 

 buds, leaves, and blossoms, but on the very vegetable life of the tree, the 

 alburnum, or newly forming bark and wood ; the consequence is, that whol 

 branches and whole trees decay under the silent ravages of these destructive 

 vermin ; witness the late destruction of many hundred acres of pine trees, 

 in the north-eastern parts of South Carolina ; and the thousands of peach 

 trees that yearly decay from the same cause. Will any one say, that, taking 

 half a dozen, or half a hundred, apples from a tree is equally niinous with 

 cutting it down ? or, that the services of a useful animal should not be re- 

 warded H-ith a small portion of that which it has contributed to preserve ? 

 We are told, in the benevolent language of the Scriptures, not to muzzle the 

 mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn ; and why should not the same 

 generous liberality be extended to this useful family of birds, which forni.s 

 Eu powerful a phalanx against the inroads of many millions uf destructive 

 Ivrniin ? 



" Notwithstanding the care which this bird, in common with the rest uJ 



