24 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.—CLASS II. AVES. 
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fered to accumulate, and probing every crevice. In fact, the orchard is his 
favorite resort in all seasons, and his industry is unequalled and almost 
incessant, which is more than can be said of any other species we have. In 
the fall, he is particularly fond of boring the apple trees for insects, digging 
a circular hole through the bark, just sufficient to admit his bill; after that, 
a second, third, &c., in pretty regular horizontal circles round the body of 
the tree: these parallel circles of holes are often not more than an inch 
or an inch and a half apart, and sometimes so close together that I have 
covered eight or ten of them at once with a dollar. From nearly the surface 
of the ground up to the first fork, and sometimes far beyond it, the whole 
bark of many apple trees is perforated in this manner, so as to appear as if 
made by successive discharges of buckshot; and our little Woodpecker — 
the subject of the present account — is the principal perpetrator of this sup- 
posed mischief: I say supposed, for, so far from these perforations of the 
bark being ruinous, they are not only harmless, but, I have good reason to 
believe, really beneficial to the health and fertility of the tree. I leave it to 
the philosophical botanist to account for this; but the fact I am confident of. 
In more than fifty orchards, which I have myself carefully examined, those 
trees which were marked by the Woodpecker (for some trees they never 
touch, perhaps because not penetrated by insects) were uniformly the most 
thriving, and seemingly the most productive. Many of these were upwards 
of sixty years old, their trunks completely covered with holes, while the 
branches were broad, luxuriant, and loaded with fruit. Of decayed trees, 
more than three fourths were untouched by the Woodpecker. Several in- 
telligent farmers, with whom I have conversed, candidly acknowledge the 
truth of these observations, and with justice look upon these birds as bene- 
ficial ; but the most common opinion is, that they bore the tree to suck the 
sap, and so destroy its vegetation : though pine and other resinous trees, on 
the juices of which it is not pretended they feed, are often found equally 
perforated. Were the sap of the tree their object, the saccharine juice of 
the birch, the sugar-maple, and several others, would be much more inviting 
(because more sweet and nourishing) than that of either the pear or apple 
tree; but I have not observed one mark on the former for ten thousand that 
may be seen on the latter. Besides, the early part of spring is the season 
when the sap flows most abundantly ; whereas, it is only during the months 
of September, October, and November that Woodpeckers are seen so inde- 
fatigably engaged in orchards, probing every crack and crevice, boring 
through the bark—and, what is worth remarking, chiefly on the south 
and south-west sides of the tree—for the ege¢s and larvee deposited there 
by the countless swarms of summer insects. These, if suffered to remain, 
would prey upon the very vitals — if I may so express it — of the tree, and, 
in the succeeding summer, give birth to myriads more of their race, equally 
destructive. 
