DOWNY WOODPECKER 



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and muscles of tlie neck^ which are truly astonishing. Mounted on 

 the infected branch of an old apple tree, where insects have lodged 

 their corroding and destructive brood in crevices between the bark 

 and wood, he labours sometimes for half an hour incessantly at the 

 same spot, before he has succeeded in dislodging and destroying 

 them. At these times you may walk up pretty close to the tree, and 

 even stand immediately below it, within five or six feet of the bird, 

 without in the least embarrassing him; the strokes of his bill are 

 distinctly heard several hundred yards off ; and I have known him 

 to be at work for two hours together on the same tree. BulFon calls 

 this ^^ncessant toil and slavery,'^ their attitude ^^a painful posture," 

 and their life " a dull and insipid existence;" expressions improper, 

 because untrue ; and absurd, because contradictory. The posture 

 is that for which the whole organization of his frame is particularly 

 adapted ; and tho to a Wren or a Humming-bird the labour would 

 be both toil and slavery, yet to him it is, I am convinced, as plea- 

 sant and as amusing as the sports of the chase to the hunter, or 

 the sucking of flowers to the Humming-bird. The eagerness with 

 which he traverses the upper and lower sides of the branches ; the 

 cheerfulness of his cry, and the liveliness of his motions while dig- 

 ging into the tree and dislodging the vermin, justify this belief. 

 He has a single note, or chink, which, like the former species, he 

 frequently repeats. And when he flies off, or alights on another 

 tree, he utters a rather shriller cry, composed of nearly the same 

 kind of note, quickly reiterated. In Fall and winter he associates 

 with the Titmouse, Creeper, &c. both in their wood and orchard 

 excursions ; and usually leads the van. Of all our Woodpeckers 

 none rid the apple trees of so many vermin as this, digging off the 

 moss which the negligence of the proprietor had suffered to accu- 

 mulate, and probing every crevice. In fact the orchard is his fa- 

 vorite resort in all seasons ; and his industry is unequalled, and 

 almost incessant, which is more than can be said of any other spe- 

 cies we have. In Fall he is particularly fond of boring the apple 



