THE IVORY BILLED WOODPECKER. 
411 
for ten or twelve more ; within roomy, capacious, and as smooth as if polished by the cabinet- 
maker ; but the entrance is judiciously left just so large as to admit the bodies of the owners. 
“ During this labor they regularly carry out the chips, often strewing them at a distance 
to prevent suspicion. This operation sometimes occupies the chief part of a week. Before 
she begins to lay the female often visits the place, passes in and out, examines every part of 
the exterior and interior with great attention, as every prudent tenant of a new house ought to 
do, and at length takes complete possession. The eggs are generally six, pure white, and laid 
in the smooth bottom of the cavity. The male occasionally supplies the female with food 
while she is sitting, and about the last week in June the young are perceived making their 
way up the tree, climbing with considerable dexterity.” 
The same writer then proceeds to remark that the process of nest-making is not always 
permitted to go on without hindrance, for the impertinent little house-wren, who likes to build 
her nest in hollows, but who is not strong or large enough to scoop a habitation for herself, 
will often allow the Woodpeckers to make a nice deep hole, just fit for a wren’s nest, and then 
drives them off and takes possession of the deserted domicile. One pair of Woodpeckers met 
with very hard treatment, being twice turned out of their house in one season, and the second 
time they were even forced to abandon one egg that had been laid. 
The holes made by this Woodpecker in trees are very numerous, and have often led more 
observant orchard- owners to think the bird an enemy to their trees, and to kill it accordingly. 
Wilson has, however, completely exonerated the bird from the charge, and proved it to be a 
useful ally to man instead of a noxious foe. “ 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 accumulate, and probing every crevice. In fact, the orchard is his favorite 
resort in all seasons ; and his industry is unequalled and almost incessant, which is more than 
can be said of any other species we have. 
“In fall he is particularly fond of boring the apple-trees for insects, digging a circnlar hole 
through the bark, just sufficient to admit his bill; after that a second, third, etc., 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 a half apart, and sometimes so close together, that I 
have covered eight or ten of them at once with a dollar. From nearly the surface of the 
ground up to the first fork, and sometimes far beyond it, the whole bark of many apple-trees 
is perforated in this manner, so as to appear as if made by successive discharges of buckshot ; 
and our 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 beneficial to the 
health and fertility of the tree. 
“In more than fifty orchards which I have myself carefully examined, those trees which 
were marked by the Woodpecker (for some trees they never touch, perhaps because not pene- 
trated by insects) were uniformly the most thriving, and seemingly the most productive. 
Many of them 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.” 
Although a little bird— less than seven inches in length — it is a truly handsome one. The 
crown of the head is velvety black, its back deep scarlet, and there is a white streak over the 
eye. The back is black, but is divided by a lateral stripe of puffy or downy white feathers. 
The wings are black, spotted with white, and the tail is also variegated with the same tints. 
From the base of the beak a black streak runs down the neck. The sides of the neck, the 
throat, and the whole of the under parts of the body are white. The nostrils are thickly 
covered with small, bristly feathers, probably to protect them from the chips of wood struck, 
off by the beak. The female is known by the grayish-white of the abdomen, and the absence 
of red upon its head. 
Although not the largest of the Woodpecker tribe, the Ivory-billed W oodpecker, of 
North America, is perhaps the handsomest and most striking in appearance. 
