Redheaded Woodpecker. 87 



the decayed wood only occasionally, the rotten particles 

 giving passage to their sharp bills with dead or muffled 

 sound. They are wary enough to evade observation 

 when they desire, and as the bird-gazer passes around the 

 stub, tree trunk, or telegraph pole on whose opposite side 

 they cling, they keep from view with the skill and cun- 

 ning displayed by the squirrels in their arboreal haunts. 

 Their facility in dodging is apparent to any one passing 

 along a telegraph line, the tall, seasoned poles of which are 

 favorite resorts of the red-headed woodpeckers. Around 

 the sides of the poles they watch the observer from the 

 corners of their eyes, hopping around in time with the 

 progress of the suspected person. Frequently they fly 

 from one pole to the next in advance of an approaching 

 person, finally evading him by doubling around their 

 post of observation and flying along the line he has just 

 passed, all the while silent and alert. Their flight has 

 little of the long undulations which mark the course of 

 most of the woodpeckers through the air, and varies little 

 from a straight line, though it usually ends in an upright, 

 abrupt curve. 



The red-headed woodpeckers are remarkably deliberate 

 and thorough in taking their food from a particular spot. 

 They differ materially from some of their relatives m 

 hunting more closely over any selected stub or branch in 

 quest of their food. The restless gleaning of the downy 

 woodpeckers through the orchard and woods is very dif- 

 ferent from the steady, stolid work of the red-heads in 

 any chosen quarter, and the business-like methods of the 

 latter are certain to keep their tables well supplied with 

 whatever the season affords. At times they bore irregu- 

 larly for many minutes without changing their station, 

 sometimes striking into the tough wood more forcibly 

 by swinging the head and shoulders about the stiff tail 

 feathers as a fulcrum. To any one observant of their 

 actions while working industriously for their food, it is 

 evident that the spine-like quills of the tail, holding them 

 more securely in position, enable them to throw the upper 

 members of the body farther from the objective point of 

 their operations, and thus to lend more of the weight of 

 the body to the stroke. These heavy, irregular strokes 



