AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



175 



A. O. U. No. 406. 



RED/HEADED WOODPECKER. 



(Melanerpes erythrocephalus.) 

 RANGE. 

 The United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Very rare in New 

 England and uncommon in the eastern parts of the Middle States. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length, 9 in.; extent, 17 in.; tail, 3.5 in. Adults: — Whole head, neck 

 and fore-breast, deep red; sometimes with and sometimes without a 

 black border to the red where it meets the white of the under parts. 

 Back, wing and tail, glossy blue black. Secondaries, upper tail cov- 

 erts, entire under parts, and tips to outer tail feathers, white. Feathers 

 of the wing with black shafts. White of the under part usually tinged 

 with reddish. Young: whole head grayish, streaked with dusky. Back, 



wings and tail, black, but the 

 feathers are edged with grayish. 

 White secondaries more or less 

 banded or spotted with black. Un- 

 der parts, dull whitish streaked 

 with gray. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



These woodpeckers are very 

 common throughout the central 

 portions of the United States, and 

 build their nest in the . decayed 

 trunks of any kind of a tree in any 

 location. Frequently telephone 

 poles are used where there is a 

 scarcity of trees. At other times 

 it will nest under the eaves of a 

 roof wherever it can find a suitable 

 cranny. They lay five or six eggs 

 of a glossy white color, tinted with 

 pink, from the yolk of the egg 

 Photo by T. Earhart. ghowiug through the shcll. 

 YOUNG RED-HEAD. 



