












THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 423 
contain one more insect, and yet, when taken, they were 
still in the act of devouring them. 
The sagacity of these birds is wonderful in determining 
the locality of an insect that is concealed in the branches of 
trees, or in the solid trunk of a sapling. Instances daily 
occur of the benefits of the Woodpecker in extracting the 
borer from trees, and so nicely does he determine their exact 
locality that his first effort to secure his prize is successful. 
The bird alights on the trunk of the tree; the fact that a 
borer is gnawing at its heart is evident to him, and he hops 
around and down the tree, giving it a few taps with his bill, 
then slowly ascending and continuing the strokes lightly, 
when suddenly he stops and strikes a few successive strokes 
in the same place. He stops longer at that spot than at any 
other; he moves up the tree and taps there, but. descends 
immediately to his last position. He has determined by the 
sound the locality of the worm and prepares to take him 
out. Fixing himself firmly on the side of the tree he throws 
his head back, and with a powerful stroke drives his chisel- 
pointed bill quite through the bark and into the solid wood 
of the tree. Stroke succeeds stroke in earnest repetition 
until he strikes upon his victim, and then thrusting his long 
barbed tongue into his body draws him out and devours 
im. 
The Golden-winged Woodpeckers are, in some instances, 
permanent residents in New England; the larger part of 
them, however, migrate South, and return from the middle to 
the last of March. After having returned and selected their 
Mates they soon begin to look up a place for a residence. 
The tree being selected they begin excavating it by digging a 
round hole, about two inches and a half in diameter, for the 
entrance, and continuing it the same size for one or two 
Inches, then immediately widen it to about seven and a half 
or eight inches in diameter, and extend it about the same 
6 ‘ize to a depth of from eighteen to twenty inches, when it is 
finished. The chips they make in excavating it, except a 
