RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 143 



All this while the Red-heads are full of gaiety. No sooner have they 

 satisfied their hunger, than small parties of them assemble on the tops and 

 branches of decayed trees, from which they chase different insects that are 

 passing through the air, launching after them for eight or ten yards, at 

 times performing the most singular manoeuvres, and, on securing their vic- 

 tim, return to the tree, where, immediately after, a continued cry of exulta- 

 tion is uttered. They chase each other on wing in a very amicable manner, 

 in long, beautifully curved sweeps, during which the remarkable variety of 

 their plvimage becomes conspicuous, and is highly pleasing to the eye. 

 When passing from one tree to another, their flight resembles the motion 

 of a great swing, and is performed by a single opening of the wings, de- 

 scending at first, and rising towards the spot on which they are going to 

 alight with ease, and in the most graceful manner. They move upwards, 

 sidewise, or backwards, without apparent effort, but seldom with the head 

 downwards, as Nuthatches and some smaller species of Woodpeckers are 

 wont to do. 



Their curving from one tree to another, in the manner just described, 

 is frequently performed as if they intended to attack a bird of their own spe- 

 cies; and it is amusing to see the activity with which the latter baffles his an- 

 tagonist, as he scrambles sidewise round the tree with astonishing celerity, in 

 the same manner in which one of these birds, suspecting a man armed with 

 a gun, will keep winding round the trunk of a tree, until a good oppor- 

 tunity pi'esents itself of sailing off to another. In this manner a man may 

 follow from one tree to another over a whole field, without procuring a 

 shot, unless he watches his opportunity and fires while the bird is on wing. 

 On the ground, this species is by no means awkward, as it hops there with 

 ease, and secures beetles which it had espied whilst on the fence or a tree. 

 It is seldom that a nest newly perforated by these birds is to be found, 

 as they generally resort to those of preceding years, contenting themselves 

 with working them a little deeper. These holes are found not only in 

 every decaying tree, but often to the number of ten or a dozen in a single 

 trunk, some just begun, others far advanced, and others ready to receive 

 the eggs. The great nvmiber of these holes, thus left in different stages, 

 depends upon the difficulties which the bird may experience in finishing 

 them ; for whenever it finds the wood hard and difficult to be bored, it 

 tries another spot. So few green or living trees are perforated by this 

 species, that I cannot at the present moment recollect having seen a single 

 instance of such an occurrence. 



