208 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



always be found during the winter months, but in no great abundance. 

 If there are no acorns or beechnuts, this bird will be entirely absent 

 in our Michigan forests." 

 Robert Eidgway (1881) writes: 



Ordinarily this species {Melanerpes eryilirocephalus) is decidedly the most 

 numerous of the Woodpeckers iu Southeastern Illinois, while during the winter 

 season it is often so excessively common in the sheltered bottom-lands as to 

 outnumber all other species together, and, in fact, is voted a decided nuisance 

 by the hunter, sportsman, or collector, on account of its well known habit of 

 following any one carrying a gun, and annoying him by its continued chatter ; at 

 intervals sweeping before him and thus diverting attention. Being at this 

 season always semi-gregarious, while they are of all woodpeckers the most 

 restless and sportive, the annoyance which they thus cause is really no trifling 

 matter. 



Evidently, they do not always spend the winter even here, for he 

 says : "In the early part of October, 1879, 1 paid my usual yearly visit 

 to my old home, and scarcely had arrived at the house ere my father 

 informed me, as a bit of news which he was well aware would both in- 

 terest and surprise me, that the red-headed woodpeckers had all 

 migrated ; that for a number of nights preceding he had heard over- 

 head their well-known notes as they winged their way to some more 

 or less distant region; in short, that the woods that had been their 

 home 'knew them now no more.' " 



Even as far south as South Carolina, according to Arthur T. Wayne 

 (1910) : "The controlling influence upon the migration of this species 

 in winter is the presence or absence of acorns of the live and water 

 oaks. If the crop of acorns is large, this woodpecker is abundant 

 during the winter months, but if there are no acorns, the bird is entirely 

 absent, no matter whether the season is mild or severe." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Southern Canada and the United States east of the Rocky 

 Mountains ; irregularly migratory in the northern parts of its range. 



Breeding range. — The breeding range of the red-headed wood- 

 pecker extends north to northern Montana (Strabane, Lewistown, 

 Fairview, and Terry) ; northern North Dakota (Arnegard and Wil- 

 low City) ; southern Manitoba (Lake St. Martin and Winnipeg) ; 

 southern Ontario (Kenora, Cobden, and Ottawa) ; southern Quebec 

 (Three Rivers and Hatley) ; and southern New Brunswick (St. 

 John). The eastern limits of the range extend from New Brunswick 

 (St. John) south along the Atlantic coast to Florida (Orlando and 

 Fort Myers). South through the Gulf coastal regions of Florida, 

 Mississippi, and Louisiana; central Texas (Waco) ; and central New 

 Mexico (Fort Sumner and Albuquerque). West to New Mexico 

 (Albuquerque and Santa Fe) ; central Colorado (Hotchkiss, Golden, 



