40 
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
and muscles of the neck, which are truly astonishing. Mounted 
on the infected branch of an old apple-tree, where insects have 
lodged their corroding and destructive brood, in crevices be- 
tween the bark and wood, he labours sometimes, for half an 
hour, incessantly at the same spot, before he has succeeded in 
dislodging and destroying them. At these times you may walk 
up pretty close to the tree, and even stand immediately below 
it, within five or six feet of the bird, without in the least em- 
barrassing him ; the strokes of his bill are distinctly heard seve- 
ral hundred yards off; and I have known him to be at work for 
two hours together on the same tree. Bulfon calls this, “ inces- 
sant toil and slavery,” — their attitude, “ a painful posture,” — 
and their life, “a dull and insipid existence;” expressions im- 
proper, because untrue; and absurd, because contradictory. The 
posture is that for which the whole organization of his frame is 
particularly adapted; and though to a Wren, or a Humming- 
bird, the labour would be both toil and slavery, yet to him it 
is, I am convinced, as pleasant, and as amusing, as the sports 
of the chase to the hunter, or the sucking of flowers to the 
Humming-bird. The eagerness with which he traverses the 
upper and lower sides of the branches; the cheerfulness of his 
cry, and the liveliness of his motions while digging into the 
tree, and dislodging the vermin, justify this belief. He has a 
single note, or chink, which, like the former species, he fre- 
quently repeats. And when he flies off, or alights on another 
tree, he utters a rather shriller cry, composed of nearly the same 
kind of note, quickly reiterated. In fall and winter, he associates 
with the Titmouse, Creeper, &c. both in their wood and orchard 
excursions; and usually leads the van. 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 favourite resort in all seasons; and his industry is une- 
qualled, 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 circular hole through 
