A RED-HEADED COUSIN 57 



head hoards, though he is very fond of them. 

 In some parts of the country it is easier to find 

 nuts than to find grasshoppers, and they are 

 much less perishable food. The red-head is 

 very fond of both acorns and beechnuts. Prob- 

 ably he eats chestnuts also. Who knows how 

 many kinds of nuts the red-head eats? You 

 might easily determine not only what he will 

 eat, but what he prefers, if a red-headed wood- 

 pecker lives near you. Lay out different kinds 

 of nuts on different days, putting them on a 

 shed roof, or in some place where squirrels and 

 blue jays would not be likely to dare to steal 

 them, and see whether he takes all the kinds 

 you offer. Then lay out mixed nuts and notice 

 which ones he carries off first. If he takes all 

 of one kind before he takes any of the others, we 

 may be sure that he has discovered his favorite 

 nut. Such little experiments furnish just the 

 information which scientific men are glad to get. 

 It is well known that the red-head is very 

 fond of beechnuts. Every other year we expect 

 a full crop of nuts, and close observation shows 

 that the red-heads come to the North in much 

 larger numbers and stay much later on these 

 years of plenty than on the years of scanty 

 crops. Lately it has been discovered that they 

 not only eat beechnuts all the fall, but store 



