When the woodpecker is searching for food, or laying siege to somehidden grub, the sound of his hammer is dead or muffled, and is heardbut a few yards. It is only upon dry, seasoned timber, freed of itsbark, that he beats his reveille to spring and wooes his mate.

Wilson was evidently familiar with this vernal drumming of thewoodpeckers, but quite misinterprets it. Speaking of the black-belliedspecies, he says: "It rattles like the rest of the tribe on the deadlimbs, and with such violence as to be heard in still weather more thanhalf a mile off; and listens to hear the insect it has alarmed."He listens rather to hear the drum of his rival or the brief and coyresponse of the female; for there are no insects in these dry limbs.