GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER. 227 



The flight of the Black Woodpecker is rather peculiar, 

 opening his wings very wide in front of him, and beating them 

 with long sweeps in his progress through the air, much in the 

 manner of the jay. The unsociableness and unfriendliness of 

 the bird before us is carried so far, that when a pair of them 

 perceive one lonely bird about their haunts, they will pursue 

 it until it leaves the vicinity. The call-note of this Wood- 

 pecker is very loud and penetrating, and sounds like cree, 

 cree ! and kirr, kirr ! several other sounds are expressed by 

 them during their time of courting, and the manner in which 

 they use their beaks in hammering, produces a vibrating 

 noise sounding like urr, or orr ! which may be heard at 

 the distance of half a mile, and this is occasioned by the bird 

 hanging on some dead upper branch of a tree, and beating 

 against the broken extremity of the same with great velocity, 

 thus causing the branch to vibrate ; the beating and vibrating 

 together give the sound produced. All the Woodpeckers 

 practice this last mentioned pastime, whereby the forests in- 

 habited by them resound in the spring with this singular 

 noise in many keys. 



While the Woodpeckers are thus engaged, they in- 

 variably erect the feathers on their heads ; and as they are less 

 able to detect an enemy owing to their own noise, they may 

 at such a time be approached very near, and must be ad- 

 mired when seen thus engaged, with the sun shining on their 

 very beautiful crimson crests in fanning motion. 



In the month of March the male Woodpecker begins this 

 jarring music, and continues it while the female sits upon 

 her eggs ; the male only makes this noise, the female never. 



The food of this Woodpecker consists of insects and their 

 larvse, which it procures from between the interstices of the 

 bark of trees and decayed parts ; also ants, which it swallows 

 in such quantities when it meets with a nest, that its stomach 

 and crop have been found filled with them. The utility of 



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