A QUAKTET OF WOODLAND DRUMMERS 209 



gather to the feast. Since that time he has never failed to 

 keep food in his yard for the birds. If you would like to 

 observe a flicker where you can approach close enough to 

 see his red head-stripe and black burnsides, come with me 

 some winter day when the snow lies deep, and we will 

 visit the birds ' banquet table spread by the good man who 

 lives in the grove. 



Skirting a path along which I am accustomed to pass 

 each morning is a row of old, scraggy locust trees. These 

 are the regular haunts of numerous birds in the summer, 

 and even in winter they are not deserted, for the bluebirds 

 and meadowlarks frequently perch on the bare branches, 

 and the white-breasted nuthatches wander much up and 

 down the trunks. Another bird seen here nearly every day 

 the past winter was a flashing red-headed fellow with white 

 breast and black back. A large patch of white also was 

 on each wing. He would cling to the side of a limb, with 

 two toes on each foot pointed forward and two pointed 

 backward, and brace himself with his tail against the 

 bark while he pecked on the wood. The size and actions 

 of this bird of course clearly indicated that he was a wood- 

 pecker, and his colors revealed his name— the red-headed 

 woodpecker. 



Only a small per cent of the woodpeckers of this species 

 spend the winter months in North Carolina, for possibly, 



