KINGFISHER (Ceryle alcyon) 



Length, about 13 inches. Not to be confused 

 with an_v otlier American bird. 



Range : Breeds from northwestern Alaska 

 and central Canada south to the southern bor- 

 der of the United States; winters from British 

 Columbia, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, 

 and X'irginia south to the West Indies, Colom- 

 bia, and Guiana. 



The cry of the kingfisher, which suggests a 

 watchman's rattle in vigorous hands, can be 

 mistaken for the note of no other bird ; nor, 

 for that matter, is the bird himself likely to be 

 confused with any other species. Whether fly- 

 ing, perched on a branch over a stream, or 

 diving for small fish, our kingfisher is always 

 himself, borrowing none of his peculiarities 

 from his neighbors. Many of his tropical 

 brothers catch insects for a living; but our 

 bird, early in the history of the development 

 of the kingfisher family, discovered that fish 

 were easier to catch and in the long run more 

 filling than insects, and hence renounced the 

 family habit and assumed the role of fisher- 

 man. Instead of using a hollow tree as a nest 

 site, the kingfisher has apparently learned a 

 lesson from the sandswallows and excavates a 

 burrow for himself in some sandbank, usually 

 not far from pond or stream ; and you may be 

 sure that any pond chosen by him for a haunt 

 is well stocked with fish. 



RED-HEAD (Melanerpes erythro- 

 cephalus) 



Length, about g^ inches. Our only wood- 

 pecker with red head and broad white wing 

 patch. 



Range: From southern Canada to the Gulf 

 Coast and from central Montana, central Colo- 

 rado, and central Texas to the Hudson and 

 Delaware. Generally resident, but more or less 

 migratory in the southern parts of its range. 



This strikingly marked and readily identified 

 woodpecker is common in some localities and 

 entirely wanting in others, which apparently 

 are equally well adapted to the bird's needs. 

 Its habits are a combination of woodpecker, 

 jay, and flycatcher, and catching insects on the 

 wing is a common habit. Though in general 

 migratory, the bird is apparently indifferent to 

 cold and other weather conditions, and winters 

 wherever food abounds, especially where beech- 

 nuts, of which it is very fond, arc plentiful. 

 The red-head cats nearly twice as nuich vege- 

 table food as it does animal, but the latter in- 

 cludes many destructive insects. For instance, 

 it is greatly to its credit that it eats both 

 species of clover beetles, the corn weevil, 

 cherry scale, and 17-year cicada. On the other 

 hand, vigorous accusations are not wanting 

 from various parts of the country of damage 

 done by this species. It oats corn on the ear, 

 and attacks many kinds of small fruits, includ- 

 ing strawberries and aiii)les. It is also guilty 

 of robbing the nests of wild birds of both eggs 

 and nestlings. It does some damage to tele- 

 graph poles by boring into them to make nests. 

 No doubt some of these charges arc well 

 founded. For the most part they represent the 

 occasional acts of individuals, or are local and 

 not characteristic of the species as a whole. 



RED-SHAFTED FLICKER (Colaptes 

 cafer collaris) 



Length, 12 to 14 inches. To be distinguished 

 from its eastern relative (C. aura t us) by its 

 red mustache and nuchal band and the red 

 wing and tail shafts. 



Range : Rocky Mountain region from British 

 Columbia south to Mexico, west to the coast 

 mountains in Oregon and Washington, and 

 through California; largely resident. 



Few birds are more widely known than the 

 flicker, as appears from the fact, recorded by 

 Chapman, that in the various parts of the 

 country it appears under no fewer than 124 

 aliases. Though well known, the flicker is 

 more often heard than seen, its loud call often 

 proclaiming its presence when it is hidden 

 among the trees. As a rule the flicker is shy, 

 and in some sections of the country it has good 

 reason to be, since it is accounted a game bird 

 and, as such, pursued for the table. 



Though a woodpecker, the red-shaft departs 

 widely from typical members of the tribe both 

 in structure and habits. Notwithstanding the 

 fact that its bill is not well adapted for boring 

 into wood for larvae, the bird manages to do 

 considerable damage in the West by making 

 holes, in church steeples, school-houses, and 

 other buildings, to serve as roosting quarters. 

 As it is nowise particular as to its domicile, it 

 is possible materially to increase its numbers 

 by putting up nesting boxes for its accommo- 

 dation. The bird's stibsistence is obtained 

 largely from the ground, where it secures vast 

 quantities of ants, for taking which its tongue 

 is specially adapted; about one-half its food, 

 in fact, consists of these creatures. 



CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER 

 (Melanerpes formicivorus and races) 



Length, about g'/j inches. Easily distin- 

 guished from its fellows by its general black 

 color, white forehead, throat patch, belly and 

 wing patch. 



Range : Breeds from northwestern Oregon, 

 California, Arizona, and New Mexico south 

 through Lower California to Costa Rica. 



The California woodpecker is a noisy, frolic- 

 some bird and by all odds the most interesting 

 of our woodpeckers. Its range seems to be de- 

 termined by that of the oaks upon which it 

 lives and from which it draws a large part of 

 its subsistence. In California the bird is known 

 to many by the Si>anish name, carf^iiitcro, or 

 carpenter, and its shop is the oak, in the dead 

 limbs of which, as in the bark of pines, it 

 bores innumerable holes, each just large enough 

 to receive an acorn. That the birds do not re- 

 gard the filling of these storehouses as work, 

 but, on the contrary, take great i)leasure in it, 

 is evident from their joyous outcries and fn^m 

 the manner they chase each other in their trii^s 

 from free to tree like boys at tag. In Cali- 

 fornia many of the country school-houses are 

 unoccui>ied during the summer and the wood- 

 peckers do serious damage by drilling holes in 

 the window casings and elsewhere with a view 

 to using them as storage places. As long as 

 the acorn crop lasts, so long does the storing 

 work go on. Meanwhile the jays and squirrels 

 slip in and rob the woodpecker's larder. 



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