30 GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 
he will bring in market; and the latter for the mere pleasure of de- 
struction, and perhaps for the flavor of his flesh, which is in general 
esteem. In the state of Pennsylvania, he can scarcely be called a 
bird of passage, as, even in severe winters, they may be found within 
a few miles of the city of Philadelphia; and I have known them ex- 
posed for sale in market every week during the months of November, | 
December, and January, and that, too, in more than commonly rigor- 
ous weather. They no doubt, however partially, migrate even here; 
being much more numerous in spring and fall, than in winter Early 
in the month of April, they begin to prepare their nest, which is built 
in the hollow body, or branch of a tree, sometimes, though not always, 
at a considerable height from the ground; for I have frequently 
known them fix on the trunk of an old apple-tree, at. not more than 
six feet from the root. The sagacity of this bird in discovering, 
under a sound bark, a hollow limb or trunk of a tree, and its perse- 
verance in perforating it for the purpose of incubation, are truly 
surprising; the male and female alternately relieving and encoura-, 
ging each other, by mutual caresses, renewing their labors for several 
days, till the object is attained, and the place rendered sufficiently 
capacious, convenient, and secure.- At this employment they are so 
extremely intent, that they may be heard till avery late hour in the 
evening, thumping like carpenters. Ihave seen an instance where 
they had dug first five ches straight forward, ana then downward 
more than twice that distance, through a solid black oak. They 
carry in no materials for their nest, the soft chips and dust of the 
wood serving for this purpose. The female lays six white eggs, 
almost transparent, very thick at the greater end, and tapering sud-' 
denly to the other. The young early leave the nest, and, climbing 
to the higher branches, are there fed by their parents. 
The food of this bird varies with the season. As the common 
cherries, bird cherries, and berries of the sour gum successively ripen, 
he regales plentiiully on them, particularly on the Jatter; but the 
chief food of this species, or that which is most usually found in his 
stomach, is wood-lice, and the young and larve of ants, of which he 
is so immoderately fond, that I have frequently found his stomach 
distended with a mass of these, and these only, as large nearly as a 
plumb. For the procuring of these insects, nature has remarkably 
fitted him: the bills of Woodpeckers, in general, are straight, grooved 
or channelled, wedge-shaped, and compressed to a thin edge at the 
end, that they may the easier penetrate the hardest wood; that of the 
Gold-winged Woodpecker is long, slightly bent, ridged only on the 
top, and tapering almost to a point, yet still retaining a little of the 
wedge form there. Both, however, are admirably adapted for the 
peculiar manner each has of procuring its food; the former, like a 
powerful wedge. to penetrate the dead and decaying branches, after 
worms and insects; the latter, like a long and sharp pick-axe, to dig 
up the hillocks of pismires, that inhabit old stumps in prodigious 
multitudes. These beneficial services would entitle him to some 
David Dongles to the westward of the Rocky Mountains. The more common 
country is Mexico, whence it extends clong the shores of the Pacific, some distance 
northward of the Columbia River, and to New California. — Ep. 
