BED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



133 



FIG. 68. 



Prionus Beetle, eaten by 

 Red-headed Woodpecker. 



it eats a large quantity of wild fruit, it could 

 probably be diverted from the cultivated varieties 

 by planting wild ones where 

 they do not exist. The best 

 of these would probably be 

 dogwood, mulberry, elder- 

 berry, choke - cherry, and 

 wild black cherry. In the 

 north, the principal food of 

 the Red-head is beechnuts, 

 and when they are plentiful 

 it stays north during the 

 winter. A great many in- 

 teresting observations have 

 been made on the bird's 



storing habit, and though it is not so remarkable 

 as the corresponding habit of the western Wood- 

 pecker, it is still surprising. Whole handfuls of 

 beechnuts have been taken from a single knot- 

 hole, and have been found in cracks in gate posts, 

 behind slivers on fence posts, and in cracks at the 

 ends of railroad ties. 1 



Estimating the value of the Woodpecker fam- 

 ily, Professor Beal says they are " the only agents 

 which can successfully cope with the insects of 

 forest and partly of fruit trees, and for this rea- 

 son if for no other they should be protected in 

 every possible way." 



1 The Auk, vol. iv. p. 193 ; Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornitho- 

 logical Club, vol. iii. p. 124. 



