724 
at the very surface of the ground, their lurking place can only be 
found by a bird which makes its examinations with its head down¬ 
wards ; and the slender, extensile, flexible, barbed tongue of this 
bird was evidently constructed to enable it to probe the holes and 
explore the crevices and cavities of the bark, and trausfix and 
drag from its cell any worm which is found reposing there. Es¬ 
quire Baldwin tells me that in numerous instances he has found • 
the flat cavity excavated by the borer under the bark, without 
any vestiges of a worm in it, and has been wholly at a loss to ac¬ 
count for its disappearance at this time, when its burrow is not 
half completed. My neighbor, Peter Reid, who has devoted much 
attention to our birds and their habits, informs me he has repeat¬ 
edly noticed the woodpecker remaining some considerable time 
down at the very root of the Apple tree, busily occupied in some, 
operation at that particular part. These facts we think clearly 
elucidate each other, and render it evident that the wmodpecker 
is the most lormidable natural enemy to the Apple-treo borer 
which exists. And whether such a war of extermination should 
be waged against this bird, as has been declared by high authority 
(Kirtland’s Zool. Ohio, p. 179), we leave to be considered hereafter. 
It is probable, from what is said of the next species, that this 
also is subject to the attacks of Hymenopterous or Bee-like para¬ 
sites, which feed upon and destroy the worm, although I am not 
aware that any of these have as yet been actually discovered 
preying upon it. 
On glancing over the various remedies which have been pro¬ 
posed, and which may be met w'ith in our agricultural papers, for 
the destruction of this borer, we are forcibly impressed with the 
fact, that, although these publications are doing great good in our 
community, they still unwittingly circulate many things that are 
foolish, and some that are pernicious. As an instance, we may 
cite the following: “ One of the surest means to destroy the borers 
in Apple trees, is to make a solution of potash, two pounds to a 
gallon of water, which must be injected into the hole where the 
borer has entered, by means of a syringe holding half a pint.” 
Now, we are not without suspicions that so strong a solution of 
canstic potash wmuld destroy not only the borer, but the tree 
