RED-HEADED WOODPECKER 205 



Mrs. John Franklin Kyler (1927) gives an interesting account of 

 a red-headed woodpecker that she raised by hand from the nest, 

 beginning before the young bird had opened its eyes; it developed 

 into a very satisfactory pet, with marked affection for its foster 

 mother; anyone who wants to try raising young birds could learn 

 much by reading her story. 



Voice. — Bendire (1895) writes: "Its ordinary call note is a loud 

 'tchur-tchur' ; when chasing each other a shrill note like 'charr-chiirr' 

 is frequently uttered, and alarm is expressed by a harsh, rattling 

 note, as well as by one which, according to Mr. Otto Widmann, is 

 indistinguishable from the note of the Tree-frog {Hyla arhorea). 

 He tells me that both bird and frog sometimes answer each other." 



Describing their spring notes, W. L. Dawson (1903) says: 



Then the woods and groves soon resound with their loud calls, Quee-o — 

 quee-o — queer. These queer cries are not unpleasant, but the birds are a noisy 

 lot at best. When one of them flies into a tree where others are gathered, all 

 set up an outcry of yarrow, yarroio, yarrow, which does not subside until tlie 

 newcomer has had time to shake hands all around at least twice. Besides these 

 more familiar sounds the red-heads boast an unfathomed repertory of chirp- 

 ing, cackling, and raucous noises. The youngsters, especially, — awkward, saucy 

 fellows that most of them are — sometimes get together and raise a fearful 

 racket xmtil some of the older ones, out-stentored, interpose. 



Field marhs. — The red-headed woodpecker is so conspicuously 

 marked that it hardly could be mistaken for anything else. The 

 large white areas in the wings and on the rump are much in evidence, 

 in any plumage, especially in flight. The bright red of the entire 

 head and neck and the plain white breast of the adult are also very 

 conspicuous. 



Enemies. — The red-headed woodpecker has some bad habits, which 

 have at times caused considerable damage to property, arousing the 

 enmity of those who have suffered from its depredations and resulting 

 in the destruction of large numbers of these birds. Kaids on cultivated 

 fruits have given these woodpeckers a bad name and many have been 

 killed by fruit growers. Audubon (1842) asserts that as many as 

 "a hundred have been shot upon a single cherry tree in one day. Pears, 

 peaches, apples, figs, mulberries, and even peas, are thus attacked." 



They do considerable damage to pole lines by excavating their nests 

 in them. An editorial in The Osprey (vol. 1, p. 147) quotes, as fol- 

 lows, from an article in the Kansas City Star : 



The little red-headed woodpecker has become such a nuisance on the electric 

 lines of the metropolitan street railway system, that it has become necessary 

 to appoint an oflBcial woodpecker exterminator. The title has been conferred on 

 Coffee Rice, an Independence young man, and yesterday he killed nineteen of the 

 destructive birds on the Independence line. The woodpeckers attack the large 

 poles which hold up the feed cables and dig holes into the center and downward 

 to a depth of more than a foot. * * * The result is that in a season the 

 water gets into the heart of the pole and it rots off and breaks, requiring a 



