146 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



I have seen them in winter bore into apples that 

 were dried up and very hard, as I considered them, 

 to get at the seeds, but never could determine whether 

 they drank what little juice there might be left in the 

 fruit. Very often their efforts would dislodge the 

 apple, and I never knew them to follow it to the 

 ground. An open squirrel-nest is sometimes visited 

 in autumn, and the scattered white grubs that are 

 among the accumulated shells of the nuts are, I sup- 

 pose, the attraction. When deep snows cover the 

 ground not a feature of recent winters these little 

 woodpeckers will come to the barns and stables and 

 seek shelter and food there. I have found them at 

 times in cow-sheds and apparently weak from ex- 

 posure and hunger, at least they were remarkably 

 tame. Vegetable food under such conditions seemed 

 very acceptable. 



The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is a Southern bird, 

 discovered by Wilson in North Carolina, and it is 

 said to occasionally wander as far up the coast as 

 New Jersey, and one or two examples collected near 

 Philadelphia have been preserved. 



The Arctic Three-toed Woodpeckers, on the other 

 hand, are, as the name indicates, Northern species 

 that do not wander as far south as the Middle States. 

 Of course there are a few exceptions to all such 

 rules, perhaps a good many more than we are will- 

 ing to admit, but it is quite true that visits to the col- 

 lections of local collectors sometimes prove " eye- 

 openers" to the professional ornithologist. 



In the Northwest they are common. Dr. Cooper 

 found them 



