210 RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER 



beneath them. When living near houses they 

 are particularly given to drumming on tin, eave- 

 troughs offering great attractions to them. Some- 

 times, when the male is drumming to call his mate, 

 Mr. Brewster says a rival appears instead, and a 

 battle ends the performance. 



Mr. Brewster has also given us many interesting 

 facts about the nesting habits of the Sapsuckers. 

 He says both birds work on the nest, " the bird 

 not employed usually clinging near the hole and 

 encouraging its toiling mate by an occasional low 

 cry. Part of the finer chips are left at the bot- 

 tom of the hole for a soft bed for the eggs. The 

 labor of incubation, like all other duties, is shared 

 equally by the two sexes, . . . the birds relieving 

 each other at intervals averaging about half an 

 hour each. . . . The bird not employed . . . has 

 also a peculiar habit of clinging to the trunk just 

 below the hole, in a perfectly motionless and strik- 

 ingly pensive attitude." 1 



Red-cockaded Woodpecker : Dryobates borealis. 



Adult male, crown black ; a scarlet spot on each side of the 

 nape ; back barred with black ; under parts white ; sides marked 

 with black. Adult female, similar, but without scarlet on the 

 head. Length, about &J- inches. 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. Southern United States, west- 

 ward to Texas and Indian Territory, and northward to Ten- 

 nessee and North Carolina. 



The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is commonly 

 1 Bulletin Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol. i. No. 3, pp. 63-70. 



