BED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



133 



Fig. 08. 

 Prionus Beetle, eaten by 

 Red-headed Woodpecker. 



it eats a large quantity of wild fruit, it could 

 l^robably be diverted from the cultivated varieties 

 by planting wild ones where 

 they do not exist. The best 

 of these would probably be 

 dogwood, mulberry, elder- 

 berry, choke - cherry, and 

 wild black cherry. In the 

 north, the princij^al food of 

 the Red-head is beechnuts, 

 and when they are plentifid 

 it stays north during the 

 winter. A great many in- 

 teresting observations have 

 been made on the bird's 



storing habit, and though it is not so remarkable 

 as the corresponding habit of the western Wood- 

 pecker, it is still surprising. Whole handfuls of 

 beechnuts have been taken from a single knot- 

 hole, and have been found in cracks in gate posts, 

 behind slivers on fence posts, and in cracks at the 

 ends of railroad ties.^ 



Estimating the value of the Woodpecker fam- 

 ily. Professor Beal says they are " the only agents 

 which can successfully cope with the insects of 

 forest and partly of fruit trees, and for this rea- 

 son if for no other they should be protected in 

 every possible way." 



1 The Auk, vol. iv. p. 193 ; Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornitho- 

 logical Club, vol. iii. p. 124. 



