106 DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
peckers, none rid the apple-trees of so many vermin as this, digging 
off the moss which the negligence of the proprietor had suffered to 
accumulate, and probing every crevice. In fact, the orchard is his 
favorite resort in all seasons; and his industry is unequalled, and 
almost incessant, which is more than can be said of any other species 
we have. In fall, he is particularly fond of boring the apple-trees for 
insects, digging. a circular hole through the bark, just sufficient to ad- 
mit his bill, after that a second, third, &c., in pretty regular, horizontal: 
circles round the body of the tree; these parallel circles of holes are 
often not more than an inch or an inch and a half apart, and some- 
times so close together, that I have covered eight or ten of them at 
once with a dollar.. From nearly the surface of the ground up to the 
first fork, and sometimes far beyond it, the whole bark of many apple- 
trees is perforated in this manner, so as to appear as if made by 
successive discharges of buck-shot; and our little Woodpecker, the 
subject of the present account, is the principal perpetrator of this 
supposed mischief, —I say supposed, for so far from these perforations 
of the bark being ruinous, they are not only harmless, but, I have 
good reason to believe, really beneficial to the health and fertility of 
the tree. I leave it to the philosophical botanist to account for this ; 
but the fact I am confident of. In more than fifty orchards which I 
have myself carefully examined, those trees which were marked by 
the Woodpecker (for some trees they never touch, perhaps because 
not penetrated by insects) were uniformly the most thriving, and 
seemingly the most productive ; many of these were upwards of sixty 
years old, their trunks completely covered with holes, while the 
branches were broad, luxuriant, and loaded with fruit. Of decayed 
trees, more than three fourths’ were untouched by the Woodpecker. 
Several intelligent farmers, with whom I have conversed, candidly 
acknowledge the truth of these observations, and with justice look 
upon these birds as beneficial ; but the most common opinion is, that 
they bore the trees to suck the sap, and so destroy its vegetation; 
though pine and other resinous trees, on the juices of which it is not 
pretended they feed, are often found equally perforated. Were the 
sap of the tree their object, the saccharine juice of the birch, the sugar 
maple, and several others, would be much more inviting, because more 
sweet and nourishing, than that of either the pear or apple-tree ; but I 
have not observed one mark on the former, for ten thousand that may 
be seen on the latter. Besides, the early part of spring is the season 
when the sap ‘flows most abundantly; whereas, it is only during the 
months of September, October, and November, that Woodpeckers are 
seen so indefatigably engaged in orchards, probing every crack and 
crevice, boring through the bark, and, what is worth remarking, chief- 
ly on the south and south-west sides of the tree, for the eggs and 
larve deposited there by the countless swarms of summer insects. 
These, if suffered to remain, would prey upon the very vitals, if I may 
so express it, of the tree, and in the succeeding summer give birth to 
myriads more of their race, equally destructive. . 
-~ Here, then, is a whole species, I may say, genus, of birds, which 
Providence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit and 
forest-trees from the ravages of vermin which every day destroy mil- 
lions of those noxious insects that would otherwise blast the hopes of 
