HAIRY WOODPECKER. 159 
skull in a groove, and end near the right nostril ; in 
birds of the first and second year they reach only to 
the crown ; bill, an inch long, channelled, wedge-formed 
at the tip, and of a dusky horn colour. The female is 
marked nearly as the male, but wants the scarlet on 
the throat, which is whitish ; she is also darker under 
the wings and on the sides of the breast. The young 
of the first season, of both sexes, in October, have the 
crown sprinkled with black and deep scarlet ; the 
scarlet on the throat may be also observed in the young 
males. The principal food of these birds is insects ; 
and they seem particularly fond of frequenting orchards, 
boring the trunks of the apple trees in their eager 
search after them. On opening them, the liver appears 
very large, and of a dirty gamboge colour; the stomach 
strongly muscular, and generally filled with fragments 
of beetles and gravel. In the morning they are extremely 
active in the orchards, and rather shyer than the rest 
of their associates. Their cry is also different, but, 
though it is easily distinguishable in the woods, cannot 
be described by words. 
44 . PICUS VILLOSUS, linnjeus. — HAIRY woodpecker. 
WILSON, PL. IX. FIG. III. MALE. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This is another of our resident birds, and, like the 
former, a haunter of orchards and borer of apple trees, 
an eager hunter of insects, their eggs and larvae in old 
stumps and old rails, in rotten branches and crevices of 
the bark ; having all the characters of the woodpecker 
strongly marked. In the month of May he retires 
with his mate to the woods, and either seeks out a 
branch already hollow, or cuts out an opening for 
himself. In the former case I have known his nest 
more than five feet distant from the mouth of the hole; 
and in the latter he digs first horizontally, if in the 
body of the tree, six or eight inches, and then down- 
ward, obtusely, for twice that distance ; carrying up 
