156 



DOWNY WOODPECKER 



trees for insects, digging a circular hole thro the bark just suffix 

 cient to admit his bill, after that a second, third, &c. in pretty 

 regular horizontal circles round the body of the tree ; these parallel 

 circles of holes are often not more than an inch or an inch and an 

 half apart, and sometimes so close together, that I have covered 

 eight or ten of them at once with a dollar. From nearly the sur- 

 face of the ground up to the first fork, and sometimes far beyond it, 

 the whole bark of many apple trees are perforated in this manner, 

 so as to appear as if made by successive discharges of buck-shot; 

 and oiu' little Woodpecker, the subject of the present account, is 

 the principal perpetrator of this supposed mischief. I say supposed, 

 for so far from these perforations of the bark being ruinous, they 

 are not only harmless, but I have good reason to believe, really be- 

 neficial to the health and fertility of the tree. I leave it to the 

 philosophical botanist to account for this ; but the fact I am con- 

 fident of. In more than fifty orchards which I have myself care- 

 fully examined, those trees which were marked by the Woodpecker 

 (for some trees they never touch, perhaps because not penetrated 

 by insects) were uniformly the most thriving, and seemingly the 

 most productive; many of these were upwards of sixty years old, 

 their trunks completely covered with holes, while the branches 

 were broad, luxuriant, and loaded with fruit. Of decayed trees 

 more than three-fourths were untouched by the Woodpecker. Se- 

 veral intelligent farmers, with whom I have conversed, candidly 

 acknowledge the truth of these observations, and with justice look 

 upon these birds as beneficial ; but the most common opinion is 

 that they bore the trees to suck the sap, and so destroy its vegeta- 

 tion ; tho pine and other resinous trees, on the juices of which it is 

 not pretended they feed, are often found equally perforated. Were 

 the sap of the tree their object, the saccharine juice of the birch, 

 the sugar maple, and several others, would be much more inviting, 

 because more sweet and nourishing than that of either the pear or 

 apple tree; but I have not observed one mark on the former for 



