The Canadian Woodpeckers, 179 



generous liberality be extended to this useful family of birds wliicli forms so 

 powerful a phalanx against the inroads of many millions of destructive 

 vermin ?" 



The rich, varied and striking plumage, together with the familiar sounds 

 and movements of this bird are among the most interesting adjuncts of the 

 rural scenery of North America. No field is perfect without its lively family 

 of Red-headed Woodpeckers. No traveller, with a taste for the natural, can 

 visit the inland districts without bearing away with him a recollection of the 

 red cap and conspicuous black and white jacket of P. erythrocephalus. This 

 bird delights most in sunny fields, where there are a few trees standing, or in 

 half cleared spots with numbers of those tall stumps in Canada, known by 

 the elegant name of Rampikes. lu such places, during the whole of the 

 warmer portion of the year, you are sure to meet with numbers amusing 

 themselves by pursuing or playing with each other. They do not seem to 

 dread the proximity of human habitations, but on the contrary are often 

 somewhat numerous in the immediate neighbourhood of towns and cities. — 

 In the country they sometimes breed within two or three hundred yards of 

 the farm house, when a tree suitable to their purpose can be found. " When 

 alighted on a fence stake by the road or in a field, and one approaches them 

 (says Audubon,) they generally move sideways out of sight, peeping now 

 and then to discover your intention ; and when you are quite close and 

 opposite, lie still until you have passed, when they hop to the top of the 

 stake, and rattle upon it with their bill as if to congi-atulate themselves on 

 the success of their cunning. Should you approach within an arms length, 

 which may frequently be done, the Woodpecker flies to the first stake or the 

 second from you, bends his head to peep, and rattles again as if to provoke 

 you to a continuance of what appears to him to be excellent sport He 

 alights upon the roof of the house, hops along it, beats the shingles, utters a 

 cry, and dives into your garden to pick the finest strawberries he can 

 discover." " No sooner have they satisfied their hunger, than small parties 

 of them assemble on the tops and branches of decayed trees, from which they 

 chase diflerent insects that are passing through the air, launching after them 

 for eight or ten yards, at times performing the most singular manceuvree, 

 and on securing their victim return to the tree, where immediately after a 

 <Ty of exultation is uttered. They pursue each other on wing in a very 

 amicable manner, in long beautifully curved sweeps, during which the remark- 

 able variety of their plumage becomes conspicuous, and is highly pleasing 

 to the eye. When passing from one tree to another, their flight resembles 

 the motion of a great swing, and is performed by a single opening of the 

 wings, descending at first, and rising towards the spot on which they are 

 going to alight, with ease and in the most graceful manner." 



The nest of the Red-headed AVoodpecker is placed in a hole bored in a 

 tree by the indefatigable bill of the bird, and is not lined with leaves, feathers, 

 cr other materials, but simply enlarged to the proper dimensions, and made 

 Mnooth and comfortable. The female lays six eggs of pure wliitc, and the 

 young are hatched in the beginning of the summer. They leave Canada for 



