DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
161 
which, like the former species, he frequently 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 Tit- 
mouse, Creeper, &c. both in their wood and orchard excur- 
sions ; 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 unequalled, 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 the bark, just sufficient to admit his bill, after 
that a second, third, & c. in pretty regular horizontal circles 
round the body of the tree ; these parallel circles of holes are 
often not more than an inch or an inch and a half apart, and 
sometimes so close together, that I have covered eight or ten 
of them at once with a dollar. From nearly the surface of 
the ground up to the first fork, and sometimes far beyond it, 
the whole bark of many apple-trees is perforated in this 
manner, so as to appear as if made by successive discharges of 
buck-shot; and our little Woodpecker, the subject of the 
present account, is the principal perpetrator of this supposed 
mischief, — I say supposed, for so far from these perforations 
of the bark being ruinous, they are not only harmless, but, I 
have good reason to believe, really beneficial to the health 
and fertility of the tree. I leave it to the philosophical 
botanist to account for this ; but the fact I am confident of. 
In more than fifty orchards which I have myself carefully 
examined, those trees which were marked by the Woodpecker, 
(for some trees they never touch, perhaps because not pene- 
trated by insects,) were uniformly the most thriving, and 
seemingly the most productive ; many of these were upwards 
of sixty years old, their trunks completely covered with holes, 
while the branches were broad, luxuriant, and loaded with 
VOL. i. 
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