THE RED HEADED WOODPECKER. 



1^ >, ERHAPS no bird in North 

 ^ ; America 



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IS more uni- 

 versally known than the 

 Red Headed Woodpecker. 

 He is found in all parts of the United 

 States and is sometimes called, for 

 short, by the significant name of Red- 

 Head. His tri-colored plumage, red, 

 white and black, glossed with steel 

 blue, is so striking and characteristic, 

 and his predatory habits in the 

 orchards and corn-fields, and fondness 

 for hovering along the fences, so very 

 notorious, that almost every child is 

 acquainted with the Red Headed 

 Woodpecker. In the immediate 

 neighborhood of large cities, where the 

 old timber is chiefly cut down, he is 

 not so frequently found. Wherever 

 there is a deadening, however, you 

 will find him, and in the dead tops 

 and limbs of high trees he makes his 

 home. Towards the mountains, 

 particularly in the vicinity of creeks 

 and rivers, these birds are extremely 

 numerous, especially in the latter end 

 of summer. It is interesting to hear 

 them rattlincr on the dead leaves of 

 trees or see them on the roadside 

 fences, where they flit from stake to 

 stake. We remember a tremendous 

 and quite alarming and afterwards 

 ludicrous rattling by one of them on 

 some loose tin roofing on a neighbor's 

 house. This occurred so often that 

 the owner, to secure peace, had the 

 roof repaired. 



They love the wild cherries, the earl- 

 iest and sweetest apples, for, as is said 

 of him, " he is so excellent a connois- 

 seur in fruit, that whenever an apple or 

 pear is found broached by him, it is sure 

 to be among the ripest and best flavored. 

 When alarmed he seizes a capital one 

 by striking his open bill into it, and 

 bears it off to the woods." He eats 

 the rich, succulent, milky young corn 



with voracity. He is of a gay and 

 frolicsome disposition, and half a 

 dozen of the fraternity are frequently 

 seen diving and vociferating around 

 the high dead limbs of some large 

 trees, pursuing and playing with each 

 other, and amusing the passerby with 

 their gambols. He is a comical fellow, 

 too, prying around at you from the 

 bole of a tree or from his nesting hole 

 therein. 



Though a lover of fruit, he does 

 more good than injur}\ Insects are 

 his natural food, and form at least two 

 thirds of his subsistence. He devours 

 the destructive insects that penetrate 

 the bark and body of a tree to deposit 

 their eggs and larvae. 



About the middle of May, he begins 

 to construct his nest, which is formed 

 in the body of large limbs of trees, 

 taking in no material but smoothing 

 it within to the proper shape and size. 

 The female lays six eggs, of a pure 

 white. The young appear about the 

 first of June. About the middle of 

 September the Red Heads begin to 

 migrate to v;armer climates, travelling 

 at night time in an irregular way like 

 a disbanded army and stopping for 

 rest and food through the day. 



The black snake is the deadly foe of 

 the Red Head, frequently entering his 

 nest, feeding upon the young, and 

 remaining for days in possession. 



" The eager school-boy, after hazard- 

 ing his neck to reach the Wood- 

 pecker's hole, at the triumphant 

 moment when he thinks the nestlings 

 his own, strips his arm, launches 

 it down into the cavity, and grasping 

 what he conceives to be t*he callow 

 young, starts with horror at the sight 

 of a hideous snake, almost drops from 

 his giddy pinnacle, and retreats down 

 the tree with terror and precipitation." 



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