RED-HEADED WOODPECKER 203 



out on the other side of the pole ! The hole was bored straight through the 

 pole, and the Woodpecker was wasting his time by pushing the acorns 

 through. He seemed to know that something was wrong, but couldn't quite 

 reason it out. He would chatter agitatedly and hitch around the pole to 

 examine the other side of the pole, but would finally give it up and go off 

 for another acorn. I watched him poke acorns in the hole several times, 

 only to have some of the ones he had previously placed there fall out on 

 the other side. On the ground under the pole was about a double handful 

 of acorns that had fallen out. 



E. D. Naiiman (1932) saw a house mouse running across a paved 

 street, but it had not gone very far when a red-headed woodpecker 

 "darted down out of the grove and made an attack upon it. The 

 woodpecker struck the mouse several hard and vicious blows with 

 its stout bill, rolling and tossing it over and over. It appeared that 

 a moment more of such treatment must have finished the mouse, had 

 not a vehicle approached just at that instant, threatening to crush 

 both the red-head and its prey. The bird darted away just in time to 

 save itself, and the mouse, not having been struck by the wheels, hur- 

 riedly limped to the edge of the pavement, got over the curb with 

 difficulty, and hid in the grass. The red-head flew back immedi- 

 ately to see what had become of its prospect for diimer, but the 

 mouse was so well hidden that the bird had to give up the chase." 



Mr. DuBois writes to me that "a red-headed woodpecker was ob- 

 served hanging upside down from the small twigs at the end of a 

 branch of a large oak, evidently gleaning insect life of some sort 

 from the twigs. It flew to another tree and repeated this method 

 of feeding." 



Lewis O. Shelley tells me that he observed one "feeding on ants 

 in a dry, harvested oat piece, obtaining the ants by thrusting the bill 

 into an ant tunnel entrance and working the bill to form a cone- 

 shaped opening, up through which the ants emerged at the disturb- 

 ance, and were licked up without the bill being withdrawn from 

 this foodhopper." 



Behavior. — Audubon (1842) writes attractively of the behavior of 

 this woodpecker: 



With the exception of the mocking-bird, I know of no species so gay and 

 frolicksome. Indeed, their whole life is one of pleasure. They find a super- 

 abundance of food everywhere, as well as the best facilities for raising their 

 broods. * * • They do not seem to be much afraid of man, although they 

 have scarcely a more dangerous enemy. When alighted on a fence-stake by the 

 road, or in a field, and one approaches them, they gradually move sidewise out 

 of sight, peeping now and then to discover your intention ; and when you are 

 quite close and opposite, lie still until you are past, when they hop to the top 

 of the stake, and rattle upon it with their bill, as if to congratulate them- 

 selves on the success of their cunning. Should you approach within arm's 

 length, which may frequently be done, the woodpecker flies to the next stake 

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

 provoke you to a continuance of what seems to him excellent sport. • * * 



