DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. V 



forest is removed and on the top of North Mountain, Sullivan 

 county, it can now be seen in small numbers flying about among 

 the blackened stubs left by the fires which have swept through 

 the slashings and will no doubt gradually replace its larger rel- 

 ative, the Pileated Woodpecker, which disappears from the 

 country along with the hemlock forests which form its home. 

 Immediately about Philadelphia I used to see it breeding in a 

 large buttonwood tree near Wayne Junction about 1879. Some 

 five years later it had disappeared from this section entirely as 

 a summer resident, though considerable flights of the birds were 

 seen going overhead in the autumn. During the last few years, 

 so far as my experience goes, the Red-headed Woodpecker is a 

 rare bird within the city limits, though during May, 1902, I 

 several times saw a pair flying over the southwestern part of the 

 city and they possibly nested on the Sherwood tract near An- 

 gora. Some years ago one remained for part of the winter 

 in Logan Square. In Lancaster county I have frequently no- 

 ticed the male bird perch on the lightning-rod on top of a 

 barn near where the female had her nest, and rattle repeatedly 

 on the iron apparently for pure enjoyment of the sound." 



Mr. Thos. D. Keim states that in the vicinity of Bristol he 

 observed several throughout the winter of 1901-2 until May 4, 

 1902, when they disappeared. 



Mr. W. E. Roberts writes that near New Hope, Pa., he knows 

 of the nesting place of a single pair which has been used annually 

 for the last five years. Besides this pair, he has seen the bird 

 only occasionally in that vicinity, but he has not known it to 

 winter. 



Prof. H. A. Surface, of State College (Bellefonte), Pennsyl- 

 vania, informs Mr. Stone that the bird is common there in the 

 summer and that he had observed young birds in the autumn 

 picking up acorns and jaming them into cracks in the bark. He 

 regarded this habit in the young birds as particularly significant, 

 if it is to be regarded as a reversion to a habit of some ances- 

 tral species of Melanerpes. 



Mr. Waldron D. W. Miller, of Plainfield, N. J., writes that 

 "in the immediate vicinity of Plainfield, the Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker is usually a rare or rather rare bird, but some seasons 



