164 
PICUS PUBESCENS. 
immediately below it, within five or six feet of the bird, 
without in the least embarrassing him ; the strokes of 
his bill are distinctly heard several hundred yards off; 
and I have known him to be at work for two hours 
together on the same tree. Buffbn calls this “ incessant 
toil and slavery,” their attitude “ a painful posture,” 
and their life “ a dull and insipid existence;” expressions 
improper, because untrue; and absurd, because con- 
tradictory. The posture is that for which the whole 
organization of his frame is particularly adapted ; and 
though, to a wren or a humming-bird, the labour would 
be both toil and slavery, yet to him it is, I am convinced, 
as pleasant and as amusing, as the sports of the chase 
to the hunter, or the sucking of flowers to the hum- 
ming-bird. The eagerness with which he traverses 
the upper and lower sides of the branches; the cheer- 
fulness of his cry, and the liveliness of his motions 
while digging into the tree and dislodging the vermin, 
justify this belief. He has a single note, or chink , 
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 titmouse, creeper, &c. 
both in their wood and orchard excursions ; 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 suf- 
fered 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 
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 
