88 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



of the woodpeckers are characteristic sounds of the or- 

 chard, and have little in common with the rapid, rhyth- 

 mic beating of their love calls ; they are rather the 

 labored strokes of the birds seeking to supply their phys- 

 ical needs. There are evidences of acute hearing shown 

 in the listening attitudes of the red-heads after an inter- 

 val of strong tapping; and their more vigorous strokes 

 after laying their heads alongside of the objective point 

 of the work is further evidence that they are guided in 

 their search for insects chiefly by a remarkably acute 

 sense of hearing. 



The nests of the red-headed woodpeckers are con- 

 structed during the middle and latter part of May. The 

 site of the nest is as variously chosen as the varying na- 

 ture of their circumstances admit. Often the cavity is 

 constructed in a dead stub only a few feet from the 

 ground ; frequently it is near the top of an elevated, 

 deadened arm of a forest monarch. A friend of mine 

 once clambered out to a nest on the under side of an ob- 

 lique branch which extended over the water of a wide, 

 sliallow creek, so that the site was at least seventy-five 

 feet above the water. Dead, denuded stubs, not more 

 than eight to ten inches in diameter, are favorite sites for 

 their cavities, and oblique branches are always in de- 

 mand. The excavation is not generally made in rotten 

 or decaying wood, but in sound, seasoned timber, in whose 

 strength and firmness the death of the branch or stub has 

 made but little difference. A chosen site may contain a 

 number of excavations made by the woodpeckers in suc- 

 ceeding years; and while I am not certain that the same 

 cavity is used by the same pair of birds in a later season, 

 it may be pre-emj)ted in the following year by another 

 pair and used as a home to rear a brood. Generally a 

 pair prefer to excavate another cavity, even in the same 

 branch or stub, to occupying the cavity of the preceding 

 season. The female does not shirk any part of the labor 

 in the construction of her future home, and the male does 

 not leave the matter of building to his spouse, as is com- 

 mon with so many birds; but with a perfect understand- 

 ing they take turns of ten to thirty minutes at the work, 

 one relieving the other at pleasure. 



