142 RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



opposite, lie still until you are past, when they hop to the top of the 

 stake, and rattle upon it with their bill, as if to congratulate themselves 

 on the success of their cunning. Should you approach within arm's length, 

 which may fre(iuently be done, the Woodpecker flies to the next stake or 

 the second from you, bends his head to peep, and rattles again, as if to 

 provoke you to a continuance of what seems to him excellent sport. He 

 alights on the roof of the house, hops along it, beats the shingles, utters a 

 cry, and dives into your garden to pick the finest strawberries which he 

 can discover. 



I would not recommend to any one to trust their fruit to the Red- 

 heads ; for they not only feed on all kinds as they ripen, but destroy an 

 immense quantity besides. No sooner are the cherries seen to redden, 

 than these birds attack them. They arrive on all sides, coming from 

 a distance of miles, and seem the while to care little about the satisfaction 

 you might feel in eating some also. Trees of this kind are stripped clean 

 by them. When one has ahghted and tasted the first cherry, he utters 

 his call-note, jerks his tail, nods his head, and at it again in an instant. 

 When fatigued, he loads his bill with one or two, and away to his nest, 

 to supply his young. 



It is impossible to form any estimate of the nvuiiber of these birds seen 

 in the United States during the summer months ; but this much I may 

 safely assert, that an hundred have been shot vipon a single cherry-tree in 

 one day. Pears, Peaches, Apples, Pigs, Mulberries, and even Pease, are 

 thus attacked. I am not disposed to add to these depredations those 

 which they commit upon the Corn, either when young and juicy, or when 

 approaching maturity, lest I should seem too anxious to heap accusations 

 upon individuals, who, although culprits, are possessed of many undeni- 

 ably valuable qualities. 



But to return : — They feed on apples as well as on other fruit, and 

 carry them off" by thrusting into them their sharp bills when open, with 

 all their force, when they fly away to a fence-stake or a tree, and devour 

 them at leisure. They have another bad habit, which is that of sucking 

 the eggs of small birds. For this purpose, they frequently try to enter 

 the boxes of the Martins or Blue-birds, as well as the jiigeon-houses, and 

 are often successful. The corn, as it ripens, is laid bare by their bill, 

 when they feed on the top parts of the ear, and leave the rest either to the 

 Grakles or the Squirrels, or still worse, to decay, after a shower has fallen 

 upon it. 



