SONGLESS BIRDS. Woodpeckers 



This, tlie largest as well as most abundant of our common 

 Woodpeckers, can be easily identified, when at rest, by the 

 black throat crescent and red head patch, and when flying 

 by the white rump and golden wing linings. The Golden- 

 winged is a Woodpecker of many aliases, among which 

 Pigeon-woodpecker, Yucker, and Yellowhammer are locally 

 familiar. Individuals remain all the year, and frequent 

 orchards and wooded gardens more than deep woodlands; 

 they walk about on the ground in search of food in the man- 

 ner of Pigeons, and are in this respect quite independent of 

 trees. 



The Flicker is a genial, sociable bird, and its hammering 

 is one of the first bird sounds of early spring that comes 

 from the orchard. In April or May it looks for a suitable 

 bree to bore, or else clears out a last year's hole. The birds 

 are very wary when the excavation is under way, and, 

 instead of dropping the chips by the tree where they are 

 working, carry them to some distance. There is a singu- 

 lar physiological fact connected with the laying powers 

 of this Woodpecker. Six is the usual setting of eggs, but if 

 the eggs are removed from the nest as soon as laid the female 

 continues laying uninterruptedly, and according to Dr. Coues 

 eighteen to twenty-three eggs have been taken from one 

 nest. 



When the young are hatched the parents redouble their 

 attention, and resent any approach to the hole. They feed 

 their young by the process known as regurgitation, conveying 

 the partly softened food from their own crops to those of the 

 young by w?i-swallowing it and placing their slender beaks in 

 the mouths of the nestlings. A tap on the tree at this time 

 will set the youngsters clamouring and the old birds fly out 

 in alarm. On leaving the hole the young are at first very 

 awkward and are unable to fly but a few feet from the 

 ground, and are easily caught in the hand; nor do they 

 seem to develop strength of wing for several days. 



In autumn both old and young gather in considerable 

 numbers in the pastures and feed upon the ground, looking 

 in the distance like Meadowlarks. 



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