288 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



strongest proof of the individuality of these birds. If four eggs 

 were laid they were of about equal size, if three, of varying 

 size. As time passed the birds seemed to nest a little earlier 

 each year, this perhaps being due to my depredations and the 

 necessity of nesting again, though this is crediting the bird 

 with more forethought than most people would allow. This 

 is probably the closing record of this pair of birds, and though 

 I have known them long, I did not know them well, and most 

 of their home secrets are secrets still. We know but little of 

 the birds about us after all, and most of that little is the part 

 we bring home and put in the cabinet. The life, the home, 

 the family cares are ever an open book that he who would 

 may ever read and never finish." C. H. MORRELL. 



Genus MELANERPES Swainson. 

 Subgenus MELANERPES. 



406. Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linn.). Red-headed 

 Woodpecker. 



Plumage of adults : head, neck, throat and extreme upper breast red ; 

 upper back, primaries, wing coverts, base of secondaries, and tail black, the 

 feathers of the tail more or less white tipped ; rump, upper tail coverts, end 

 of secondaries, lower breast and belly white. Immature plumage : head and 

 neck grayish brown and fuscous ; upper back ashy barred ; end portion of 

 secondaries black barred ; lower breast and belly more or less streaked with 

 dusky; otherwise like adults. Wing 5.50; culmen 1.17. 



Geog. Dist.— United States west to the Rocky Mountains and from Florida 

 to about 50'^ north latitude ; local in New England ; winters from portions of 

 New York and Virginia southward. 



County Records. — Androscoggin ; one observed in Mechanic Falls, July 17, 

 (J. M. O. S. 1905, p. 27). Aroostook; rare straggler, (Knight). Cumberland ; 

 rare, irregular transient, (Brown, C. B. P. p. 19) ; one in full plumage seen at 

 Cape Elizabeth, May 15, 1904, (Brownson, J. M. O. S. 1904, p. 65). Franklin ; 

 rare, (Richards). Hancock; straggler, (Knight). Kennebec; (Larrabee). 

 Knox; occasional visitant, (Rackliff). Oxford; visitant, (Nash). Penob- 

 scot; very rare, has been taken in July, (Knight); a male received from 

 Rowland about May 6, 1906, (Wm. Cooper). Piscataquis; rare, (Homer). 

 Sagadahoc ; rare, only three specimens, all in fall, (Spinney) . Washington ; 

 very rare, (Boardman). York; breeds sparingly, (Adams) ; one taken near 

 Biddeford in May, 1900, (J. M. 0. S. 1902, p. 48). 



