28 RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



in the interior, at that season, you hear them screaming from the 

 adjoining woods, rattling on the dead limbs of trees or on the 

 fences, where they are perpetually seen flitting from stake to 

 stake, on the road side before you. Wherever there is a tree, 

 or trees, of the wild-cherry, covered with ripe fruit, there you 

 see them busy among the branches; and in passing orchards, 

 you may easily know where to find the earliest, sweetest apples, 

 by observing those trees, on or near which the Red-headed 

 Woodpecker is skulking; for he is so excellent a connoisseur in 

 fruit, that wherever an apple or pear is found broached by him, 

 it is sure to be among the ripest and best flavoured. When alarm- 

 ed, he seizes a capital one by striking his open bill deep into it, 

 and bears it off to the woods. When the Indian corn is in its 

 rich, succulent, milky state, he attacks it with great eagerness, 

 opening a passage through the numerous folds of the husk, and 

 feeding on it with voracity. The girdled, or deadened timber, 

 so common among corn-fields, in the back settlements, are his 

 favourite retreats, whence he sallies out to make his depredations. 

 He is fond of the ripe berries of the sour gum; and pays pretty 

 regular visits to the cherry-trees, when loaded with fruit. To- 

 wards Fall, he often approaches the barn, or farm-house, and 

 raps on the shingles and weather-boards. He is of a gay and 

 frolicksome disposition; and half a dozen of the fraternity are 

 frequently seen diving and vociferating around the high dead 

 limbs of some large tree, pursuing and playing with each other, 

 and amusing the passenger with their gambols. Their note or 

 cry is shrill and lively, and so much resembles that of a species 

 of tree frog, which frequents the same tree, that it is sometimes 

 difficult to distinguish the one from the other. 



Such are the vicious traits, if I may so speak, in the character 

 of the Red-headed Woodpecker; and 1 doubt not but from what 

 has been said on this subject, that some readers would consider 

 it meritorious to exterminate the whole tribe, as a nuisance; and 

 in fact the legislatures of some of our provinces, in former times, 

 offered premiums, to the amount of twopence per head, for their 



