RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 
51 
gree of cold, than several others of our Woodpeckers. They 
are active and vigorous; and being almost continually in search 
of insects, that injure our forest trees, do not seem to deserve 
the injurious epithets that almost all writers have given them. 
It is true, they frequently perforate the timber in pursuit of 
these vermin, but this is almost always in dead and decaying 
parts of the tree, which are the nests and nurseries of millions 
of destructive insects. Considering matters in this light I do not 
think their services overpaid by all the ears of Indian corn they 
consume; and would protect them within my own premises as 
being more useful than injurious. 
