138 BIRDS OF FIELD, FOREST AND PARK 



worms found in decaying wood, and he eats 

 fruits, as peaches, plums, grapes, and a variety 

 of berries and other vegetable kind. They 

 also feed upon nuts, acorns, beechnuts, and 

 they have the reputation of destroying the eggs 

 and young of other birds, something hard to be- 

 lieve in so tame and, withal, so gentle a bird. 

 They nest in old trees and sometimes in holes cut 

 in telephone poles; but, with the exception of the 

 Flicker, they seem less skillful in using their 

 bills than other members of the family. Both 

 male and female help at the work of excavating. 

 They are tame birds, seen about the city parks 

 and shade trees of the village, always conspic- 

 uous for their red, white and black. 



Red-heads have the unusual habit of storing 

 up food, nuts of various kinds, in convenient 

 holes about wooden fences, and in the crevices 

 of the rough bark of certain trees. This supply 

 of food sometimes keeps them from migrating, 

 although the great majority spend the cold 

 months in Virginia and farther south. Their 

 summer range covers southern New England, 

 the middle and Southern States, and they are per- 

 manent residents in the southern portion of 

 their range, sometimes, as we have seen, even in 

 New York State. 



