182 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
his stomach distended with a mass of these, and these only, 
as large nearly as a plum. For the procuring of these in- 
sects, nature has remarkably fitted him. The bills of 
Woodpeckers, in general, are straight, grooved or chan- 
nelled, wedge-shaped, and compressed to a thin edge at 
the end, that they may the easier penetrate the hardest 
wood; that of the Golden-winged Woodpecker is long, 
slightly bent, ridged only on the top, and tapering almost 
to a point, yet still retaining a little of the wedge form 
there. Both, however, are admirably adapted to the pe- 
culiar manner each has of procuring its food. The for- 
mer, like a powerful wedge, to penetrate the dead and de- 
caying branches, after worms and imects; the latter, like 
a long and sharp pick-axe, to dig up the hillocks of pis- 
mires, that inhabit old stumps in prodigious multitudes. 
These beneficial services would entitle him to some re- 
gard from the husbandman, were he not accused, and 
perhaps not without just cause, of being too partial to the 
Indian corn, when in that state which is usually called 
roasting-ears. His visits are indeed rather frequent 
about this time; and the farmer, suspecting what is going 
on, steals through among the rows with his gun, bent on 
vengeance, and forgetful of the benevolent sentiment of 
the poet; — that 
“ Just as wide of justice he must fall 
Who thinks all made for One, not one for all.” 
But farmers, in general, are not much versed in poetry, 
and pretty well acquainted with the value of corn, from 
the hard labour requisite in raising it. 
In rambling through the woods one day, I happened to 
shoot at one of these birds, and wounded him slightly in 
the wing. Finding him in full feather, and seemingly 
but little hurt, I took him home,, and put him into a large 
cage, made of willows, intending to keep him in my own 
room, that we might become better acquainted. As soon 
as he found himself inclosed on all sides, he lost no time 
in idle fluttering, but throwing himself against the bars of 
the cage, began instantly to demolish the willows, batter- 
ing them with great vehemence, and uttering a loud pite- 
ous kind of cackling, similar to that of a hen when she is 
alarmed, and takes to wing. Poor Baron Trenek never 
laboured with more eager diligence at the walls of his 
prison, than this son of the forest in his exertions for 
liberty; and he exercised his powerful bill with such force, 
digging into the sticks, seizing and shaking them so from 
side to side, that he soon opened for himself a passage; 
and though I repeatedly repaired the breach, and barri- 
cadoed every opening in the best manner I could, yet on 
my return into the room, I always found him at large, 
climbing up the chairs, or running about the floor, where, 
from the dexterity of his motions, moving backwards, 
forwards, and sideways, with the same facility, it became 
difficult to get hold of him again. Having placed him in 
a strong wire cage, he seemed to give up all hopes of 
making his escape, and soon became very tame; fed on 
young ears of Indian corn; refused apples, but ate the 
berries of the sour gum greedily, small winter grapes, and 
several other kinds of berries; exercised himself frequent- 
ly in climbing, or rather hopping perpendicularly along 
the sides of the cage; and as evening drew on, fixed him- 
self in a high hanging or perpendicular position, and slept 
with his head in his wing. As soon as dawn appeared, 
even before it was light enough to perceive him distinct- 
ly across the room, he descended to the bottom of the 
cage, and began his attack on the ears of Indian corn, rap- 
ping so loud as to be heard from every room in the house. 
After this he would sometimes resume his former position, 
and take another nap. He was beginning to become very 
amusing, and even sociable, when, after a lapse of several 
weeks, he became drooping, and died, as I conceived, from 
the effects of his wound. 
Some European naturalists, (and among the rest Lin- 
naeus himself, in his tenth edition of the Systema Naturae,) 
have classed this bird with the genus Cuculus, or Cuckoo, 
informing their readers that it possesses many of the habits 
of the Cuckoo; that it is almost always on the ground; is 
never seen to climb trees like the other Woodpeckers, and 
that its bill is altogether unlike theirs; every one of which 
assertions I must say is incorrect, and could have only 
proceeded from an entire unacquaintance with the manners 
of the bird. Except in the article of the bill, and that, as 
has been before observed, is still a little wedge-formed at 
the point, it differs in no one characteristic from the rest 
of its genus. Its nostrils are covered with tufts of recum- 
bent hairs or small feathers; its tongue is round, worm- 
shaped, flattened towards the tip, pointed, and furnished 
with minute barbs; it is also long, missile, and can be in- 
stantaneously protruded to an uncommon distance. The 
os hyoides, or internal parts of the tongue, like those of 
its tribe, is a substance for strength and elasticity, resem- 
bling whalebone, divided into two branches, each the thick- 
ness of a knitting-needle, that pass, one on each side of 
the neck, to the hind-head, where they unite, and run up 
along the scull in a groove, covered with a thin mem- 
brane or sheath; descend into the upper mandible by the 
right side of the right nostril, and reach to within half an 
inch of the point of the bill, to which they are attached 
by another extremely clastic membrane, that yields when 
the tongue is thrown out, and contracts as it is retracted. 
In the other Woodpeckers we behold the same apparatus, 
