178 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
Their bills are long and sharp for chiseling through 
bark and decayed wood. The muscles of the neck are 
strong, enabling them to make rapid and powerful 
strokes, while the lengthened tongue is provided with 
barbs for pulling out the hidden insects. A pair of 
woodpeckers will eat in a season thousands of insects, 
and will destroy the eggs and larve of more imbedded 
in the bark, which, if left, would produce millions to 
prey upon the life of the trees. 
Many orchards of small fruits, such as cherries, 
plums, quinces and pears, have been entirely destroyed 
simply through the misguided farmers, who, mistaking 
their valuable services for injuries, killed these wood- 
peckers as fast as they appeared. No wonder that 
forests decay, and fruit trees become valueless, when 
their friends and. protectors are killed that their enemies 
may live and flourish. 
The golden-winged, the most beautiful as it is one of 
the most useful of this class, has been so persecuted by 
the collectors, that the number is becoming very small, 
with a prospect of an early extinction. 
Clearing the leaves of fruit and shade trees, of 
insects’ eggs and larve is largely performed by the 
active and ever-busy wrens and sweet-voiced vireos; 
while the creepers and warblers perform the same office 
to the trees in the deeper forests. 
The cuckoos and orioles are invaluable in ridding the 
foliage of canker worms, and if they were allowed to 
live and multiply, as they naturally would, we should 
not be troubled with the unsightly worms’ nests that 
