«385.] Bicknell on the Singing of Birds. 2 S9 



air of satisfied achievement and survey the woods, which seemed 

 doubly silent after the loud reveille. 



I have never known this Woodpecker to drum in the autumn. 

 At that season it seems especially reserved. Many take up their 

 habitation in orchards or on private grounds where there are old 

 apple trees, and from their silence and the close manner in which 

 they hug the limbs seem to haunt them with a constant suspicion, 

 although they are not shy of approach. In these trees they keep 

 up a feeble, restless picking, in their microscopic search of the 

 bark for their hidden food. This is the only sound I have heard 

 trom them in the autumn, except an occasional low scream, 

 which may rarely be uttered in the winter. 



Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Red-headed Woodpecker. 



This fine bird is usually uncommon about New York, and long 

 periods may elapse when it appears to be altogether absent. But 

 it is liable to come in flocks any autumn, when many may stay 

 and spend the winter. 



The species was common from September, 1S81, until the 

 middle of the following May. Their usual note — a guttural 

 rattle, similar to the cry of the tree-toad (Uyla versicolor) — was 

 kept up all through the winter. In April their vocabulary was 

 augmented by a hoarse, hollow-sounding cry. Then the birds in 

 small companies still occupied the same woods where they had 

 passed the winter, but were more noisy and active, and would 

 sometimes set up a confused screaming all together. The tree- 

 toad rattle I have also heard in August. 



Colaptes auratus. Golden-winged Woodpecker. 



The well-known High-hole has, for a Woodpecker, a very varied 

 repertoire. Its long rolling call may be taken as especially repre- 

 sentative of song, and is a characteristic sound of the empty 

 woodland of early spring. It is usually given from some high 

 perch, and has a free, far-reaching quality, that gives it the effect 

 of a signal thrown. out over the barren country, as if to arouse 

 sleeping nature. This call continues irregularly through the 

 summer, but then loses much of its prominence amid the multi- 



