54 BIRDS OF P. E. ISLAND 



from trunk to trunk and demurely digging for 

 their insect prey. But when the brightening suns 

 of March gleam o'er the forest, they mount the 

 hollow beech trees and, with a vigorous rap, rap- 

 ping, make the naked wood -land ring. Like 

 those of all Woodpeckers, their eggs are pure 

 white. They are six in number, placed in a nest- 

 hole excavated in the solid timber of lofty trees. 



The great Black Woodpecker, or Logcock, is 

 a lonely bird of the forest, but rarely seen now 

 in the cleared state of our country. It is fifteen 

 inches in length, mostly black in color, with a 

 scarlet crest. It is a ])owerful wood -cutter, and 

 the amount of chips that it will knock out of a 

 decayed stump which it sup[)oses to contain a 

 meal of grubs, is something astonishing. 



The Yellow - bellied Woodpecker (Sphyropicus 

 varius)^ with its beautifully varied plumage, is the 

 Sapsucker which is sometimes thoughtless enough 

 to strip the bark off orchard trees for the sake 

 of obtaininiif the sweet cambium which lies next 

 the wood. 



The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a southern bird 

 which occasionally wanders here in mid -summer. 

 The Golden- winged Woodpecker (Colaptcs auratus) 



