RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 15! 
not but, from what has been said on this subject, that 
some readers would consider it meritorious to extermi- 
nate 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 twopence per head 
for their destruction.* But let us not condemn the 
species unheard : they exist ; they must therefore be 
necessary. If their merits and usefulness be found, on 
examination, to preponderate against their vices, let us 
avail ourselves of the former, while we guard as well as 
we can against the latter. 
Though this bird occasionally regales himself on 
fruit, yet his natural and most usual food is insects, 
particularly those numerous and destructive species 
that penetrate the bark and body of the tree to deposit 
their eggs and larvae, the latter of which are well known 
to make immense havoc. That insects are his natural 
food is evident from the construction 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 ever found without them. He searches for 
them with a dexterity and intelligence, I may safely 
say, more than human ; he perceives, by the exterior 
appearance of the bark, where they lurk below ; when 
he is dubious, he rattles vehemently on the outside with 
his bill, and his acute ear distinguishes the terrified 
vermin shrinking within to their inmost retreats, where 
his pointed and barbed tongue soon reaches them. The 
masses of bugs, caterpillars, and other larvae, which I 
have taken from the stomachs of these birds, have 
often surprised me. These larvae, it should be remem- 
bered, feed not only on the buds, leaves, and blossoms, 
but on the very vegetable life of the tree, the alburnum, 
or newly forming bark and wood ; the consequence is, 
that whole branches and whole trees decay under the 
silent ravages of these destructive vermin ; witness 
* Kalm. 
