128 BIRDS 



While the Red-headed Woodpecker is fond of in- 

 sects and animal food it has an appetite for acorns, beech- 

 nuts and fruits and is in a measure governed in its migra- 

 tion south more by the harvest promises of the latter 

 than the scarcity of the former. 



Every child of school age knows this bird on sight 

 and by hearing, for it is as conspicuous on every tele- 

 phone pole near our cities as the advertisements setting 

 forth the superior qualities of a particular brand of 

 chewing gum, liver pills or smoking tobacco. In fact, 

 the owners of some of the trolley lines entering Kansas 

 City have found it necessary to wage war on these kitch- 

 enette builders in the cedar trolley poles. (Fig. 62.) 



My residence is on one of the most traveled boule- 

 vards in the city, yet within a half -block of my house 

 several Red-heads live each year and become tame, hav- 

 ing pre-empted several phone poles in an alley just back 

 of me. Daily during the mating season a male bird may 

 be heard riveting away on the top coping of the slate roof 

 of my house. Why he does not break or dull his awl-like 

 bill I do not understand. It may be music to the patient 

 and devoted ears of his mate but, to my way of thinking, 

 there is a lack of that harmony one expects in music. 



