258 USEFUL BIRDS. 
to Professor Beal, Dr. Merriam found the stomachs of four 
birds filled with beechnuts, and has seen this species eat the 
berries of the mountain ash. It eats bayberries also. 
Hairy Woodpecker. 
Dryobates villosus. 
Length. — About nine and one-half inches. 
Adult.— Quite similar to the Downy Woodpecker, but much larger; the bill pro- 
portionately longer. 
Nest.— A hole cut in a tree by the bird. 
Eggs. — White. 
Season. — Resident. 
The Hairy Woodpecker, like the preceding species, lives 
to such an extent on the grubs of boring beetles and on 
wood-boring ants that it can find food at all times of the 
year. In very cold winters, 
however, when the trees are 
solidly frozen for months, both 
these species find it difficult to 
dig out borers from living trees. 
In the winter of 1903-04, which 
was exceedingly cold, the 
Woodpeckers were compelled 
to work on dry limbs and fence 
rails, wood piles, and any dry 
Fig. 11'7.—Hairy Woodpecker, male, timber they could find. They 
about one-half natural size. do wot disdain. to help theme 
selves to waste meat, fat, or suet in winter. 
The Hairy Woodpecker is less common than the Downy, 
but individually is about as useful. Its sharp, clicking notes 
much resemble those of its smaller congener, but they are 
stronger, and have a wilder sound. The bird may be easily 
recognized by its large size and its vigorous, rapid move- 
ments. Like all Woodpeckers, its flight is rather undulat- 
ing, as though, by reason of its excess of vigor, it could not 
help leaping and bounding through the air. It is usually 
shyer than the Downy, and is found more in timber lands 
than in orchards ; but becomes tamer where it is not molested 
by man, and sometimes breeds in the orchard. 
Maurice Thompson says that this bird strikes its bill into 
