552 AVES — WOODPECKER. 



in the interior at that season, you hear them screaming from the adjoining 

 woods, rattling on the dead limbs of trees, or on the fences, where they are 

 perpetually seen flitting from stake to stake on the roadside before you. 

 Wherever there are trees of the wild cherry, covered with ripe fruit, there 



you see them busy among the branches ; and in passing orchards, you may 

 easily know where to find the earliest, sweetest apples, by observing those 

 trees on or near which this bird is skulking; for he is so excellent a con- 

 noisseur in fruit, that wherever an apple or pear is found broached by him, 

 it is sure to be among the ripest and best flavored. When alarmed, he seizes 

 a capital one by sticking his open bill deep into it, and bears it off to the 

 woods. When the Indian corn is in its ripe, succulent, and milky state, he 

 attacks it with great eagerness, opening a passage through the numerous 

 folds of the husk, and feeding on it with voracity. The girdled or deadened 

 timber, so common among the corn-fields in the back settlements, are his 

 favorite retreats, whence he sallies out to make his depredations. He is 

 fond of the ripe berries of the sour gum, and pays regular visits to the cherry 

 trees, when loaded with fruit. Towards fall, he often approaches the barn 

 or farmhouse, and raps on the shingles and weather-boards. He is of a gay 

 and frolicsome disposition ; and half a dozen of the fraternity are frequently 

 seen diving and vociferating round the high dead limbs of some tree, pur- 

 suing and playing with each other, amusing the passenger with their gam- 

 bols. Their note or cry is shrill and lively, and so much resembles that of 

 a species of tree-frog, Avhich frequents the same tree, that it is sometimes 

 difficult to distinguish the one from the other. 



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



