RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
449 
the progress of agriculture, he may be seen prowling among 
the dead and girdled trees which now afford him an augmented 
source of support ; and, as a chief of the soil, he sometimes 
claims his native rights by collecting a small tithe from the 
usurping field of maize. His loud and harsh call of ’tshom 
'tshow 'tshow 'tshow, reiterated like the barking of a cur, may 
often be heard, through the course of the day, to break the 
silence of the wilderness in which his congenial tribe are 
almost the only residents. On a fine spring morning I have 
observed his desultory ascent up some dead and lofty pine, 
tapping at intervals, and dodging from side to side, as he as- 
cended in a spiral line ; at length, having gained the towering 
summit, while basking in the mild sunbeams, he surveys the 
extensive landscape, and almost with the same reverberating 
sound as his blows, at intervals he utters a loud and solitary 
'cuT^rh in a tone as solemn as the tolling of the Campanero. 
He thus hearkens, as it were, to the shrill echoes of his own 
voice, and for an hour at a time seems alone employed in con- 
templating, in cherished solitude and security, the beauties and 
blessings of the rising day. 
The nest, early in April, is usually made in some lofty 
branch ; and in this labor both the sexes unite to dig out a cir- 
cular cavity for the purpose, sometimes out of the solid wood, 
but more commonly into a hollow limb. The young appear 
towards the close of May or early in June, climbing out upon 
the higher branches of the tree, where they are fed and reared 
until able to fly, though in the mean time from their exposure 
they often fall a prey to prowling Hawks. These birds usually 
raise but one brood in the season, and may be considered, like 
the rest of their insect-devouring fraternity, as useful scaven- 
gers for the protection of the forest ; their attacks, as might be 
reasonably expected, being always confined to decaying trees, 
which alone afford the prey for which they probe. 
This bird is common in parts of Ontario, but has not been taken 
elsewhere in Canada. It is common in Ohio, and ranges as far to 
the southward as Florida, but is very rare in New England. 
VOL. I. — 29 
