396 WOODPECKER. 



Carolina the whole year, but are not in such numbers as in summer ; 

 during winter are very tame, and often come into houses, in the same 

 manner as the Redbreast is known to do England. 



It is called in Georgia the Summer Woodpecker, and Corn-eater; 

 and fondest of the maize when in roasting ears, or when fit to boil, 

 the grain being then soft, and full of a sweet milky juice; they peck 

 away the membrane, and eat the grain, returning at times until they 

 consume the whole ear, but oftener only open it, and eat some of the 

 top, whereby the rest rots by the rain ; they are less desirous of it 

 when the ear is hard, although they will then sometimes eat it. This 

 bird is also fond of mulberries, plums, peaches, &c. and seldom 

 eats insects, but through want of corn or fruit ; if an ear of maize is 

 turned down, the bird cannot get at it ; and in all probability the 

 true cause of their migration is on account of the scarcity of fruits 

 and corn, when they shift their quarters to others more productive, 

 and agreeable to their palate. It is a common species in the spring 

 and summer in Georgia ; and a few are sometimes seen in the oak 

 woods in a warm day in the winter season. 



They build in dead pines, making the nest of chips of rotten 

 wood, lined with moss; the eggs of a plain blush-colour, with a 

 kind of transparency, or whiteness at one end. They make a noise 

 with their bills against the dead trees, and may be heard at a mile 

 distant ; they build the earliest of all the tribe, and generally place 

 the nest pretty high from the ground. The flesh is by many 

 esteemed savoury. The black snake will often enter the holes, and 

 destroy both nest and eggs. 



68— WHITE-RUMPED WOODPECKER. 



Picus obscurus, Jnd. Orn. i. 22S. Gm. Lin. i. 429. 

 White-rumped Woodpecker, Gen. Syn. ii. 563. 



LENGTH nine inches. Bill horn-colour; head, throat, and all 

 the upper parts of the body dusky, transversely streaked, and waved 



