RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 571 



complacence, turns every insect visit to his advantage, 

 and for hours together placidly reconnoitres the sur- 

 rounding fields ; at times he leaves his lofty citadel to 

 examine the rails of the fence, or the boards of the 

 adjoining barn ; striking terror into his lurking prey by 

 the stridulous tappings of his bill, he hearkens to their 

 almost inaudible movements, and discovering their re- 

 treat, dislodges them from their burrows, by quickly and 

 dexterously chiseling out the decaying wood in which 

 they are hid, and transfixing them with his sharp and 

 barbed tongue. But his favorite and most productive 

 resort is to the adjoining fields of dead and girdled trees ; 

 amidst whose bleaching trunks, and crumblingr branches, 

 he long continues to find an ample repast of depredating 

 and boring insects. When the cravings of appetite are 

 satisfied, our busy hunter occasionally gives way to a 

 frolicksome or quarrelsome disposition, and with shrill and 

 lively vociferations, not unlike those of the neighbouring 

 tree-frog, he pursues in a graceful curving flight his com- 

 panions or rivals round the bare limbs of some dead 

 tree to which they resort for combat or frolick. 



About the middle of May, in Pennsylvania, they bur- 

 row out or prepare their nests in the large limbs of trees, 

 adding no materials to the cavity which they smooth out 

 for the purpose. As with the Blue-Bird, the same tree 

 continues to be employed for several years in succession, 

 and probably by the same undivided pair. The eggs, 

 about 6, are said to be white, marked at the great end 

 with reddish spots, in which last particular, they differ 

 from all others of the genus. The first brood make their 

 appearance about the 20th of June. The eggs and 

 young of this, and many other birds, occasionally fall a 

 prey to the attacks of the common Black Snake. 



The length of this species is about 9^ to 10 inches, the alar stretch 

 about 17. Bill light-blue. Legs bluish green. Iris dark-hazel. 



