RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 159 
floor — high trees ; while the swallows and swifts 
go above all —in the air. 
POLY EH. 
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
THE handsome red-head can be distinguished 
at almost any distance by his sharply blocked 
“tricolor” of glossy blue-black, bright crimson, 
and clear white. Beginning with his red head, 
the stripes of the French flag are reversed, for 
the order is not red, white, and blue, but red, 
blue (black), and white. Underneath he is pure 
white. Mr. Burroughs speaks of his flitting 
about the open woods, ‘‘ connecting the trees by 
a gentle are of crimson and white!” 
When common, the red-headed woodpecker 
may be found everywhere, — in the orchards, gar- 
dens, fields, and woods, — but in many parts of 
the country he is rather rare. He is an erratic 
migrant, his residence in any district depending 
on the nut supply ; so that you may not see him 
for a year or more at a time. 
Like the California woodpecker, the red-heads 
are “ hoarders.” They have been found making 
a business of storing away beech nuts. They 
would hide them not only in knot-holes, between 
eracks in the bark, and under strips of loosened 
bark, but also in fence posts, railroad ties, and 
