140 Field and Forest Rambles. 



tappings proclaim its presence at long distances. I was 

 puzzled for a time how to account for only a tree here and 

 there, among hundreds exactly similar, having been selected by 

 the woodpeckers for their diggings, and why in many instances 

 the perforations covered only one side of the trunk ; when 

 one sultry forenoon, whilst seated near a rotting pine, I heard 

 several distinct scratchings in the interior as if as many mice 

 were nibbling the wood. On splitting the trunk open, I found 

 many large woodworms busily employed in making their tun- 

 nellings ; and thus it appeared to me that probably the wood- 

 peckers discovered the whereabouts of this their favourite food 

 by listening to the sound made by these worms when exca- 

 vating passages in the interior of the tree. Indeed it is ex- 

 tremely likely that by hearing they are enabled to find out 

 the particular site of the worm, as it is not every tree that 

 contains this insect. I have often seen woodpeckers halt for 

 a few minutes now and then on their way up a trunk, as if 

 listening for the welcome sound of these large white worms, 

 one of which ought to be a dainty dish to the majority of the 

 species, although perhaps only a bite to this the most portly 

 of all. The strong wedge-shaped bill of the woodpecker per- 

 forates the tough Cedar (T. occidentalis) to the rotting centre 

 in quest of these insects, perhaps only when the bird has 

 been assured beforehand by a process of auscultation that it 

 is sure to find its prey by digging through several inches of 

 fresh wood. Some idea of the extreme durability of this, the 

 American arbor vita 7 , may be conceived from the fact that 

 snake fences have been pointed out to me no less than fifty 

 years old, which with the exception of some surface weathering 

 looked as durable as on the day they were put up. The 

 woodpecker delights to hunt on soft-wood trees growing on 

 light sandy soils, as these pines do not attain huge dimensions, 

 and show an early tendency to death of the centre, when 

 the worm attacks that part, and often turns the trunk into 

 a perfect shell, which the first hurricane blows down. 



