Su 
172 * _Mr. Peabody on the 
There is no secrecy or shyness in its depredations; 
they are conducted with perfect good nature, and 
with a confidence, fully expressed in its manner, 
that the proprietor enjoys the appropriation as much 
as they do. But there is another side to the account, 
for they show great skill and industry in searching 
the trees for grubs, which would be infinitely more 
destructive to the tree, than the woodpecker to the 
fruit. 
They make their holes in decaying trees, where 
the eggs, white, with reddish spots at the larger end, 
are deposited without the ceremony of a lining. 
The black snake is a great destroyer of the eggs and 
the young. They show considerable local attach- 
ment, and for years in succession, they resort to the 
same tree. 
The Rep-setump Wooprecgen, Picus Caroli- 
nus, is said to be unknown in the eastern part of the 
State. In the interior it is found, and Professor 
Emmons tells me that he has shot the bird in the 
season of incubation; others have taken them in 
" ae autumn. They are found through the whole ex- 
tent of the United States; but instead of frequent 
ing the gardens, they choose the solitude of the 
forests, preferring the hardy independence of the 
woodlands, to the dangers which threaten them in 
the vicinity of man. 'They have no objection to 
the first approaches of civilization, and come freely 
to the girdled trees wich surround the log but of 
the borderer ; sometimes they pay a visit to his cor 
field, when animal food is wanting, and their loud, 
