RED-HEADED 'WOOhVECKER.—Melaiierpes crythrocephalits 



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 inhabits the same tree, that it is sometimes diflicult to distinguish the one 

 from the other." 



On account of the garden-robbing propensities of this bird, it is held in much odium, 

 and trapped whenever occasion offers itself. In some places the feeling against it was so 

 strong, that a reward was offered for its destruction. It is probable, however, that the 

 services which it renders by the destruction of acknowledgedly noxious insects may more 

 than compensate for its autumnal ravages in the fields and orchards. 



Unlike the previous species, which is a permanent inhabitant, the Ked-headed 

 Woodpecker is a bird of passage, appearing in Pennsylvania about the beginning of May, 

 and leaving that country towards the end of October. The eggs of this bird are pure white, 

 speckled with reddish brown, mostly towards the larger end, and generally six in number. 



The adult male is a really beautiful bird, its plumage glowing with steely black, snowy 

 white, and brilliant scarlet, disposed as follows : The head and neck are deep scarlet, and 

 the upper parts of the body are black, with a steel-blue gloss. The upper tail-coverts, the 

 secondaries, the breast, and abdomen, are pure white. The beak is light blue, deepening 

 into black towards the tip ; the legs and feet are blue-green, the claws blue, and round 

 the eye there is a patch of bare skin of a dusky colour. The female is coloured like her 

 mate,' except that her tints are not so brilliant. The young of the first year have the 

 head and neck blackish grey, and the white on the wings is variegated with black. The 

 total length of the bird is between nine and ten inches. 



The Ground Woodpeckers are represented by the Gold-winged Woodpecker of 

 America. 



This bird may lay claim to the title of the feathered ant-eater, for it feeds very largely 

 on those insects, and has its beak shaped in a somewhat pickaxe-like form, in order to 

 enable it to dig up their nests from the ground and the decaying stumps of trees. In the 

 stomach of one of these birds Wilson found a mass of ants nearly as large as a plum. 

 It also feeds much on woodlice, those destructive creatures which eat the bitterest and the 

 2. 



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