IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 
133 
like note and loud strokes resound through the solitary 
Ravage wilds, of which he seems the sole lord and 
'aliahitant. Wherever he frequents he leaves numerous 
’'Monuments of his industry behind him. We there see 
®ierraous pine trees with cartloads of hark lying 
’’^onnd their roots, and chips of the trunk itself in such 
'liaiitities as to suggest the idea that half a dozen of 
^^e-men had been at work there for the whole morning, 
^lie body of the tree is also disfigured with such 
Numerous and so large excavations, that one can hardly 
'^nceive it possible for the whole to ho the work of 
* ’voodiiecker. With such strength, and an a])paratus 
'*0 powerful, what havoc might he not commit, if 
hnnxerous on the most uselul ot our forest trees ! and 
S'®! with ’all these appearances, and much ot vulgar 
l"‘eiudice aimlnst him, it may fairly be questioiied 
''liether he Ts at all injurious ; or, at least, whether lus 
**ertions do not contribute most powerfully to the 
P''otcction of our timber. Examine closely the tree 
^liere he has been at work, and you will soon perceive, 
^ 'at it is neither from motives of mischief nor amiisc- 
5®nt that he slices off the hark, or digs his way into 
f'e trunk.— For the sound and healthy tree is the 
^as^t object of his attention. The diseased, infested 
-’'hh insects, and hastening to putrel'action, are his 
7^ourites; there the deadly crawling enemy have 
‘®rmed a lodgement between the bark and tender wood, 
ilriiik ui) the very vital part of the tree. It is tlie 
Ravages of these vermin which the intelligent proprietor 
the forest deplores, as the sole perpetrators ot the 
?®«truction of liis timber. Would it be hcheved that 
‘1‘e larvie of an insect, or lly, no larger than a gram of 
should silently, and in one season destroy some 
r‘f>usand acres of pine trees, many ot them trom two 
h three feet in diameter, and a hundred and fifty teet 
p'Sh! Yet whoever passes along the high road from 
, ®'>rgetown to Charleston, in South Carolina, about 
^'^'enty miles from the former place, can have striking 
‘‘‘"1 melancholy proofs of this fact. In some places 
