SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 259 
the wood and then for an instant holds the point of one 
mandible in the dent thus made, while it listens for the 
movements of the borer. He contends that the vibrations 
produced by the insect in the wood are conveyed through 
the bill of the bird to its brain. 
This bird eats less animal food in proportion to its vege- 
table food than does the Downy Woodpecker ; and accord- 
ing to Professor Beal it eats more beetles, more caterpillars, 
and less ants, than does its smaller relative. Beetles and 
their larve form fully one-third of its insect food, and a large 
part of these consists of the larger wood-boring insects. Its 
special usefulness inheres in its large size, its long beak and 
tongue, and its power of drilling deep into the trees and 
extracting from trunks and branches the larger pernicious 
borers. In this respect the bird is more nearly indispensa- 
ble to the forester and orchardist than any other bird of the 
State, except perhaps the Pileated Woodpecker, which is so 
local as to be of much less value generally. Mr. J. M. 
Baskett tells of some Siberian crab trees in his yard that were 
attacked by borers. One of the trees died; but a Hairy 
Woodpecker came, worked diligently, and cleaned out all the 
grubs, thus saving the remaining trees. 
This Woodpecker is often quite destructive to hairy cat- 
erpillars, and feeds its young on noxious larve of many 
species. It also attacks the pupe or chrysalids of many in- 
jurious moths, among them those of the gipsy moth. Moths 
that hibernate in cocoons during the winter are particularly 
exposed to the attacks of this Woodpecker. Dr. F. M. 
Webster states that he saw one of these birds peck through 
the cocoon of the cecropia moth, and devour the contents. 
On examining more than a score of these cocoons, he found 
only two uninjured by the bird. Ants, grasshoppers, and 
spiders are eaten. 
Its vegetable food is much like that of the Downy, but is 
consumed in much larger quantity. It sometimes takes a 
little corn; in summer it feeds much on wild cherries, and 
in the fall on wild grapes to some extent. Like the Downy, 
it eats a little of the inner bark or cambium from the tree 
trunks, and possibly may take some sap. 
