206 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



new pole to be set up; whereas, ordinarily, the life of the big pole is several 

 years. A large number of the electric line poles have been ruined this way, and 

 there was a threatened loss of many thousand dollars unless the pest was checked. 



Red-headed woodpeckers seem to be oftener killed on highways by 

 speeding automobiles than any other species, as attested by several 

 observers. Dr. Dayton Stoner (1932) made some observations on this 

 point on an automobile trip, on July 15, 1924, for a distance of 211 

 miles on well-graveled roads in Iowa. He says : 



En route, 105 dead animals representing fifteen species were counted ; of these, 

 thirty-nine were red-headed woodpeckers. The mortality in this species was 

 higher than for any other species of vertebrate animal noted and I believe that 

 several contributory factors are responsible for it. First, these birds have a 

 propensity for feeding upon Insects and waste grain in and along the roads; 

 second, they delay taking wing before the approaching car, in all probability 

 being poor judges of its speed ; and third, they have a slow "get-away," that is, 

 they can not quickly gain suflBcient speed to escape the oncoming car. However, 

 I feel certain that a speed as high as thirty-five to forty miles an hour is necessary 

 in order to overtake these birds. 



Alexander Wilson (1832) writes: 



Notwithstanding the care which this bird, in common with the rest of its genus, 

 takes to place its young beyond the reach of enemies, within the hollows of trees, 

 yet there is one deadly foe, against whose depredations neither the height of the 

 tree nor the depth of the cavity, is the least security. This is the black snake 

 (Coluber constrictor), who frequently glides up the trunk of the tree, and, like 

 a skulking savage, enters the woodpecker's peaceful apartment, devours the eggs 

 or helpless young, in spite of the cries and fluttering of the parents ; and, if 

 the place be large enough, coils himself up in the spot they occupied, where he 

 will sometimes remain for several days. 



Fall. — The fall migration is often well marked. A. H. Helme 

 (1882), writing from Millers Place, Long Island, N. Y., where the bird 

 occurs mainly as a migrant, says : 



The first one observed this season was on the 10th of September. On the 12th 

 I saw three, and on the 20th I saw one. Early on the morning of the 24th of Sep- 

 tember they began to pass over in large numbers, and continued to pass until 

 about 10 o'clock, after which very few were seen, except straggling groups of 

 three or four, and occasionally a single one was seen to pass over during the day. 

 The flight must have consisted of several hundred, principally young birds. 

 They came from the east and were flying west Many of them in their flight 

 would alight for a few minutes in the orchards and corn fields to feed on the 

 half-ripened corn, or search among the apple trees for the larva or eggs of insects 

 but would soon continue on their journey, and their places would be supplied by 

 others. I noticed one or two to dart out and seize an insect in the manner of a 

 flycatcher. The following day but two or three were seen. A few stragglers, 

 however, were occasionally met with up to the 10th of October, and one was seen 

 as late as the 23rd of November. 



John B. Semple (1930) writes: 



On September 16, 1929, a flight of red-headed woodpeckers (Melanerpes 

 erytJirocephalns) was observed passing over the marshes at the head of Sandusky 

 Bay, Ohio. The birds were flying in little groups of two to five against a stiff 



