THE WOODPECKERS. 151 



red head and neck. It is a much more conspicuous 

 bird than the all-red cardinal or black-winged tanager, 

 and of late, if not always, the birds seem to know it 

 and are shy, keeping well among the trees, and quite 

 near their tops at that. This is a sad change and 

 none to their liking. It is not so long ago that the 

 red-headed woodpecker was a bird of the fields, and 

 particularly of the old, weed-grown worm-fences ; and 

 he was an expert fly-catcher, and launched out after 

 beetles as gracefully as a kingbird, and never missed 

 his aim. He loved the old apple-orchards, and his 

 presence there was as natural as the bloom in May 

 or the ruddy fruit in October. Dr. Warren suggests 

 that the demand for millinery purposes has brought 

 about the change. Even our new dictionaries do not 

 give us the words that are needed to comment on 

 this matter, and probably the world will not wake up 

 until the birds are gone altogether. 



These birds are very fond of wild fruit, and Wilson 

 says are excellent judges of apples; but they eat, as 

 do all woodpeckers, any quantity of insects, and earn 

 and always did earn what they took from the orchard. 



The Red-bellied Woodpecker is rare in the eastern 

 portions of the Middle States, but abundant west- 

 ward. They appear to prefer the hilly regions, or 

 have been driven back by the general destruction of 

 the timber. 



Nuttall states, 



" His loud and harsh call of 'tsAow, 'tsAow, 'tsAow, 'tsAow, reiterated 

 like the barking of a cur, may often be heard, through the course of 

 the day, to break the silence of the wilderness in which his congenial 

 tribe are almost the only residents. On a fine spring morning I have 



