RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. II 



colony of beauties ; birds whose existence he would 

 not be aware of till winter set in, for these care- 

 fully avoid the haunts of man till the snows compel 

 them to seek for food in the neighbourhood of his 

 dwellings. These are the cedar birds (Bohemian 

 chatterers), the snow birds, cross beaks, and cat birds, 

 alike attractive in form and colour. 



If you chance to be a novice in these woods, a 

 steady, tap, tap, tap, almost as audible as that pro- 

 duced by a hammer striking a nail, will constantly 

 fall upon the ear ; the noise is so loud and defined 

 that the listener can well suppose that it is produced 

 by a human being, and if he should be nervous, he 

 might unquestionably feel alarmed, till he discovered 

 that it was not one of his own race that caused 

 his discomfiture. This tap, tap, tapping is not at 

 the garden gate, but on the dead limb of some 

 aged tree, the result of the incessant hammering of 

 the giant red-headed woodpecker, seeking for the 

 larvae of numerous insects, which form the principal 

 part of its dietary. 



This family are a happy-go-lucky, inquisitive, and 

 talkative lot, either hard at work in pursuit of their 

 prey, or scolding and wrangling with their fellows. 



I am inclined to believe that they are domineering 

 and tyrannical, for when a younger bird appears to 

 have discovered a good hunting-ground, on which 

 game is abundant, the old or larger ones drive off the 

 successful discoverer, and appropriate the game as 

 spolia optima. 



These predatory invasions are strenuously opposed, 

 but when the odds are too heavy in favour of the 

 aggressor, the refugee will seek assistance from some 

 adjoining chum, when both will return and attack the 

 freebooter, drive him off, and probably terminate the 

 alliance by a battle royal to decide the question who 

 is to remain in possession. 



Human beings have been known to do such things 



