Red-headed Woodpecker 197 



on forehead, crown, chin and throat. He is 

 smaller than a robin by two inches, yet larger 

 than the English sparrow, who shares with him 

 a vast amount of public condemnation. 



RED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



A pair of red-headed woodpeckers I know, who 

 made their home in an old tree next the station 

 yard at Atlanta, where locomotives clanged, 

 puffed, whistled and shrieked all day long, 

 evidently enjoyed the noise, for the male liked 

 nothing better than to add to it by tapping on 

 one of the glass non-conductors around which 

 a telegraph wire ran. When first I saw the 

 handsome, tri-coloured fellow he was almost 

 enveloped in a cloud of smoke escaping from 

 a pufQng locomotive on the track next the tele- 

 graph pole, yet he tapped away unconcerned 

 and as merrily as you would play a two-step on 

 the piano. When the vapour blew away, his 

 glossy bluish black and white feathers, laid on 

 in big patches, were almost as conspicuous as 

 his red head, throat and upper breast. His mate 

 is red-headed, too. 



All the woodpeckers have musical tastes. A 

 flicker comes to my verandah to tap a galvan- 

 ised rain gutter, for no other reason than the 

 excellent one that he enjoys the sound. Tin 



