54 



THE IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



c(l l)ut wc often reg-ard it asnar- 

 r(.\v, because we look from a nar- 

 row stand point. By the inter- 

 course of our association we see 

 thing's in a different lig-ht. If 

 our methods have been g-ood be- 

 fore, bv comparison with those of 

 others, we become better satisfied 

 with our own lot. If they have 

 been fault}', we are afforded an 

 opportunity to rectify and im- 

 prove them. 



Now is the time to interest new 

 members. Now is tlic time to 

 recruit our ranks. Let us make 

 our association a certainty, and 

 place it on a firm financial basis. 

 One of the ways of accomplishing- 

 this, is to make our "Iowa Okni- 

 thologist" an interesting- and 

 desirable publication. This can 

 be done by each of us sending- in 

 our notes and observations on the 

 birds, for in this feature lies one 

 of the m^ost important points of 

 interest. 



By taking- ,'in individual inter 

 est we can close this, our first 

 year, with credit to ourselves 

 and beg-in a new year with 

 the brig-htest prospects for many 

 succeeding- ones. 



Ekn'KST Ikons, Pkes- 

 Council Bluffs, la. 



Red-headed Woodpecker in 

 Jackson Co. 



Latitude 42. 

 This species is common in this 

 county, Avherever suitable loca- 



tions. They usually nest in larg-e 

 trees, but Avhen these are not 

 handy they make use of smaller 

 ones, and sometimes teleg-raph 

 poles. Their food is mostly in- 

 sects, how^everthey sometimes eat 

 fruit, and on certain occasions 

 they eat corn. In the summer of 

 188*) a pair had a nest in a poplar 

 tree, the hole 15 feet from the 

 g-round. This was near a farm 

 house. At first the birds seem to 

 feed entirely on insects, but after 

 a time they learned to take corn 

 with the pig's, coming- every time 

 the pig's were fed to pick up the 

 corn from the g-round. After the 

 young- ^vere hatched, the old birds 

 ^vould come reg-ularl}' and carry 

 corn to the nest, so the little birds 

 must have been fed principally 

 upon it. Most of the birds do 

 not arrive in the spring-, until 

 early in May, A few of them 

 straggle along- much earlier. I 

 have several times noted speci- 

 mens in March. In the. autumn 

 they usually depart about the last 

 of September, although on a few 

 occasions, I have seen them in 

 November. But I had thoug-ht 

 that these w^ere the extremes. 

 However this season breaks my 

 record as a few of them remained 

 all winter. I g-ive a few dates on 

 which I noted them; December 

 24th, January 2nd, 10th, and on 

 the 23d. two specimens were seen. 

 Februrar}- . 7th it was 10 ^ below^ 

 zero and a high wind blowing-, 

 one specimen was seen; and on 

 February 12th saw another. 



H. J. (iIDDINGS. 



