Merriam on Birds of Lewis County, New York. 3 
Woodpeckers amuse themselves by pounding upon such dry hollow 
trees and hard resonant limbs as multiply the sound tenfold, so 
that one can, at a distance, readily distinguish them from other 
members of the family. Before they have been with us three weeks, 
however, an inward change takes place, and by the middle of May 
their manners are so different that one would scarcely recognize the 
species. The migrants have passed on, and those which remain to 
breed have already given up their idle frolics, and in comparative 
silence are preparing for the graver task of rearing offspring. 
In the Adirondack region, during the migrations, they outnum- 
ber all the other species of the family together, and throughout the 
entire summer are second in numbers only to the Hairy Woodpecker 
(Picus mllosus). Here they often, in search for insects, strip off the 
“ shag-bark ” from the spruce, and it is no uncommon thing, in 
passing through these primeval forests, to meet with many large 
trees thus almost completely denuded of their outer bark for nearly 
the entire length of the trunk. These trees are very conspicuous 
objects, and never fail to excite the curiosity of strangers, who are 
much more willing to believe theexisting condition “due to the ravages 
of the Black Cock of the Woods [ Hylatomus pileatus\ or Porcupine ” 
( Erethizon dormtus ) than to the present innocent-looking species. 
In the central district they really do considerable mischief by 
drilling holes in the bark of apple, thorn-apple, and mountain-ash 
trees in such a way as to form girdles of punctures, sometimes 
two feet or more in breadth (up and down), about the trunks and 
branches. Whether in like manner they affect trees (excepting 
occasionally a young elm) pertaining to other genera than the one 
(Pyrus) to which the above belong, I am unable to say ; but the 
fact of their destroying some of these, notably the apple, and es- 
pecially in the West, has often been recorded. The holes, which are 
sometimes merely single punctures, and sometimes squarish spaces 
(multiple punctures) nearly half an inch across, are placed so near 
together that, not unfrequently, they cover more of the tree than 
the remaining bark. Hence, more than half of the bark is some- 
times removed from the girdled portions, and the balance often 
dries up and comes off. Therefore it is not surprising that trees 
which have been extensively girdled generally die, and mountain 
ash are much more prone to do so than either apple or thorn-apple 
trees, due, very likely, to their more slender stems. 
The motive which induces this species to operate thus upon 
