OUR HOME BIRDS. 
275 
in the garden, fifteen or twenty yards off, where, after 
digging out a most complete apartment, and one egg 
being laid, they were once more assaulted by the 
same impertinent intruder, and finally forced to 
abandon the place/ 
“ 4 The principal characteristics of this little bird 
are diligence, familiarity, perseverance, and a strength 
and energy in the head and muscles of the neck 
which are truly astonishing. Mounted on the in- 
fested branch of an old apple tree, where insects 
have lodged their corroding and destructive brood 
in crevices between the bark and wood, he labors 
sometimes for half an hour incessantly at the same 
spot before he has succeeded in dislodging and de- 
stroying 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 several hours 
together on the same tree/ 
“ The largest of the woodpeckers is the ivory-billed, 
which measures twenty inches ; its general color is 
black, with a gloss of green v 7 hen exposed to a strong 
light ; the front of the head is black, but the other 
part is a beautiful red, spotted at the bottom with 
white. The beak, wdiich is an inch wide at the base, 
