132 * BED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



times surprised by the sight of a strikingly bril- 

 liant bird with a red head and patches of white 

 on its wings flying ahead of us. It is such a 

 dazzling beauty that, while we fear for its life if 

 it linger along the public highway, we must wish 

 for a closer acquaintance. Fence posts are among 

 its favorite hunting places, and while it clings to 

 them it is much less conspicuous than one would 

 imagine so brilliant a creature could be ; but it 

 can sit very still on occasion, and its black back 

 might easily pass for a fence-post shadow, while 

 its red head seen against the green loses its color. 



It is interesting to watch the Red-head hunt 

 from a fence, for he combines the ways of the 

 Flycatchers and more conservative tree-trunk 

 Woodpeckers. First, perhaps, he makes short 

 elliptical sallies into the air for insects, returning 

 to his post with his prey ; then he flies down to 

 the ground for a grasshopper, and again shoots 

 up straight in the air for perhaps a rod, coming 

 down almost as straight ; and finally, as if tired 

 of such flycatcher-like antics, falls to hammer- 

 ing on his rail. 



The Red-head is j^articularly fond of the inju- 

 rious big white grub in its adult stage of June 

 bug, the prionus form, and eats more grasshop- 

 pers than any other Woodpecker. It also eats 

 wasps and weevils. To be sure, it does harm by 

 eating some useful insects and a little grain and 

 fruit, but the fruit does not amount to much. As 



