246 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
suckers time is now divided between playing bo-peep with the 
boys, and gouging out the tender bark of various trees; maple, 
cherry, peach, plum, apple, pear, mountain ash, poplar, pine, 
spruce, in fact almost every species of tree suffers more or 
less. The holes are made on the trunk and large branches, 
usually in a line running around the tree or branch, so as to 
girdle it with a row of punctures. These are from one-sixtli 
to one-half an inch in diameter, and placed so close that there 
is only a narrow septum between, not sufficient, many times, 
to keep up the circulation and in consequence the tree dies; 
a result that occurs more frequently from wounds thus made 
in the summer and fall, when the divisions are more liable to 
dry, than during the spring when the active forces of vege¬ 
table life more readily repair the injury. There is not an 
orchard or garden of any size in this vicinity, that does not 
number trees killed outright by these sapsucking Woodpeckers. 
All go further North by the 5th of May, except such as remain 
to nest in the adjacent woods. While in, the forest they feed 
on the bark of the wild cherry, iron wood, basswood, and 
white oak, but continue to visit neighboring orchards for a 
more dainty meal, as they prefer thrifty cultivated trees. By 
the middle of September the young appear in the orchards 
and gouge the trees on their own hook; they retire South by 
the first of November. A silent bird, especially when sucking 
their food, an occasional kewee , keweeah , uttered in a minor 
key, is all the note they have. 
I have shot and dissected many at at all seasons, and in 
every case bark was found in the stomach, and in a majority 
of instances nothing but bark and a few gravel stones, a sub¬ 
stance not met with in other species of Woodpeckers. When 
insects were found they proved to be ants and small beetles; in 
no instance have I found the larva of the borers or elators, 
which constitute so large a share of the diet of the Hairy and 
Downy Woodpecker. 
Several years since these facts were communicated to Prof. 
Joseph Leida, of Philadelphia, who requested me to forward 
specimens in alcohol, “as my statements were highly inter- 
