PICI. 11.5 



nest, and until the first frosts give warning of the coming 

 winter. It reaches southern Ohio about the 25th of April, 

 and the northern counties within three days afterward. 

 Frequently a few individuals remain all winter even at the 

 lake shore, but the majority have -left the northern regions 

 before the last of September. 



The Red-head is not quite a true woodpecker, since he 

 does not search the bark of trees for insects and worms as 

 much as he looks for them on posts and such surfaces, but 

 he has developed the flycatcher habit of darting out for fly- 

 .ing insects, catching them as adroitly as any Kingbird. The 

 late General J. D. Cox told with evident relish how as a boy 

 he took advantage of this flycatching habit to catch the bird. 

 By tossing a small stone up past the bird alert upon the top 

 of some broken topped dead tree, as the stone fell downward 

 the bird would invariably dart out to catch it, but was 

 stunned and fluttered to the ground only to be pounced 

 upon and carried off in triumph by the young general! 



"The Red-head makes the best showing in the kinds of 

 insects eaten. It consumes fewer ants and more beetles than 

 any of the other species, in this respect standing at the head, 

 and it has a pronounced taste for beetles of very large size. 

 Unfortunately, however, its fondness for predaceous beetles 

 must be reckoned against it. It also leads in the consumption 

 of grasshoppers ; these and beetles together forming 36 per 

 cent, of its whole food." (Beal.) It also eats a little corn, 

 a good deal of wild and cultivated fruit, and beech-nuts. It 

 does not injure trees by pecking them. The nest is dug out 

 of almost any woody substance, preferably a tree, but fre- 

 quently a post will do as well. 



156. (409.) CENTURUS CAROLINUS (Linn.). 145. 



Red-bellied Woodpecker. 

 Synonyms: Melanerpes carolinus, Picus carolinus. 



Zebra Bird, Guinea Woodpecker, Carolina Woodpecker, 

 Checkered Woodpecker, Zebra Woodpecker, Orange 

 Woodpecker or Sapsucker. 

 Wilson, Am. Orn., I, 1808, 113. 



The Red-bellied Woodpecker is fairly common in the 



