393 
Of the blue-jay, Wilson says: “His favorite food is chesnuts and acorns, 
but he occasionally feeds on bugs and caterpillers.” 
“ The food of the Yellow-hammer or Flicker,” we are informed by the same 
author, “ varies with the season ; as the common cherries, bird-cherries and ber- 
ries of the sour gum successively ripen, he regales plentifully on them, particu- 
larly on the latter, but the chief food of this species, or that which is most usually 
found in his stomach, is wood lice and the young and larvse of ants, of which he 
is so immoderately fond that I have frequently found his stomach with a mass of 
these, and that only as large merely as a plum.” 
The woodpecker is also on the list, and such is the prejudice against this noisy 
and impudent fellow, that it is feared it will be difficult to persuade the House to 
throw over him the protection of the law. Yet a careful investigation of his char- 
acter and habits will show that, with all his faults, he is one of the best friends of 
the farmer and pomologist. 
Here are his good and his bad qualities, as given by Wilson : 
“ Wherever there is a tree of the wild cherry covered with ripe fruit, there you 
see him busy among the branches ; and in passing orchards you may easily know 
where to find the earliest, sweetest apples, by observing those trees on or near 
which the red headed woodpecker is skulking, for he is so excellent a connoisseur 
in fruit that whenever an apple or pear is found broached by him, it is sure to be 
among the ripest and best flavored. When the Indian corn is in its rich succu- 
lent milky state, he attacks it with great eagerness, opening a passage through 
the numerous folds of the husk, and feeding on it with great voracity. The gird- 
led or deadened timber so common amoDg cornfields in the back settlements, are 
his favorite retreats whence he sallies to make his depredations. 
“ Such are the vicious traits, if I may so speak, in the character of the red- 
headed woodpecker ; and I doubt not, from what has been said on this subject, 
that some readers will consider it meritorious to exterminate the whole tribe as a 
nuisance ; and, in fact, the Legislatures of some of our provinces, in former 
times, offered premiums to the amount of two pence per head for their destruc- 
tion. 
“ But let us not condemn the species unheard. Though this bird occasionally 
regales himself on fruit, yet his natural and most useful food is insects, particu- 
larly those numerous and destructive species that penetrate the bark and body of 
the tree to deposit their eggs and larvse, the latter of which are well known to 
make immense havoc. That insects are his natural food, is evident from the con- 
struction of his wedge-formed bill, the length, elasticity and figure of his tongue, 
and the strength and position of his claws, as well as from his usual habits. In 
fact, insects form at least two-thirds of his subsistence, and his stomach is scarcely 
