I 
142 PICtJS AURATUS. 
where they had dug first five inches straight 
and then dou nward more than tuice tliat 
through a solid black oak. They carry in no 
for their nest, the soft chips and dust of the '' 
serving all their purpose. The female lays sis 
eggs, almost transparmit, very thick at the greater 
and tapering suddenly to the other. The young 
leave the nest, and, climbing- to the higher branr 
ai'e there feil by their parents. ^,(<1 
The food of this bird varies with the season. jii( 
the common cherries, bird cheiTies, and berries j 
sour gum, successively ripen, he regales plentifinO, 
them, particularly on the latter ; but the chief fi’® |||! 
this species, or that which is most usually found >'* ^ 
stomach, is wood lice, and the j'oung and 
cOl 
ants, of which he is so immoderately fond, that I 
fre()uently found his stomach distended with a 
these, and these only, as large nearly as a ])hiinb- 
the procuring of these insects, nature has remafh*'^ 
fitted him. The bills of woodpeckers, in gencrah 
straight, grooved or channelled, >vedge-shaped, ‘ ^ 
compressed to a thin edge at the end, that thcy,''J||( 
the easier penetrate the hardest wood; that of j 
gold-winged woodpecker is long, slightly bent, 
only on the toj), and ta|)ering almost to a poinb -ji,, 
still retaining a little of the wedge form tlnu-e. 
however, are admirably adapted for the peiudiar wii'’® , 
ea(!h has of |>rocuriug its food. The former, jji! 
powerful Avedge, to penetrate the dead and decar j 
branches, after worms and insects; the latter, I'yjil 
long iiud sharp pickaxe, to dig up the hillock'jjj, 
pismires, that inhabit old stumps in prodigious toO ^ 
tudes. These beneficial services would entitle h'W’^j 
' il 
some regard from the husbandman, were he not 
and perhaps not without just cause, of being too 1>* jjv 
to the Indian corn, when in tliat state which is 
called roastin^-ears. His visits are indeed nathei 
quent about tliis time ; and the farmer, suspecting " 
is going on, steals through among the rows with 
