312 CITIZEN BIRD 



Woodpeckers are industrious workers, and all of them 

 except the Sapsuckers are very useful to us in destroy- 

 ing hurtful insects." 



" What kind of eggs do they lay ? " asked Dodo ; '' it 

 must be hard to get a look at them in such deep holes 

 so high up." 



"Very pretty ones indeed," replied the Doctor. 

 '' They are not very easy to reach, though you can 

 readily see the rounded hole that leads into the nest, for 

 it is almost always bored in a bare, dead part of the tree. 

 I can show you some Woodpecker's eggs in my cabinet. 

 They are all alike, except in size — more round than 

 most birds' eggs are, very smooth and glossy, like porce- 

 lain, and pure white. But now write your table while 

 that Red-head is still in sight. It is a very easy one ; 

 his colors are plain, and you can guess pretty nearly 

 how long he is." 



The Red-headed Woodpecker 



Length about nine inches. 



Head and neck crimson-red all around ; back and most of Avings 

 and tail glossy blue-black ; all the rest snow-white, except a little 

 red tinge on the belly. 



Young ones gray where the old ones are red, and not so pure 

 black and white in other places. 



A Citizen of the eastern half of the United States and some 

 parts of Canada, but mostly going to the Southern States for the 

 winter. 



A good neighbor and useful member of the guilds of Tree Trap- 

 pers and Ground Gleaners ; he takes some of our fruits now and 

 then, but is welcome to them for the good he does in destroying 

 insects which would injure and perhaps kill our fruit trees if he 

 did not eat liis full share of them ; and he has to work very hard to 

 dig them out of the places where they lurk under the bark. 



