RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER. 13 



until finding a spot by which it thought it might escape, it began to 

 work there, and soon made the chips fly off: In a few minutes, it made 

 its way out, and leaped upon the floor, uttering its common cluck, hop- 

 ped to the wall, and ascended as if it had been on the bark of one of 

 its favourite trees. The room being unfinished, the bricks were bare, 

 and as it passed along, it peeped into the interstices, and seized the 

 spiders and other insects which it found lurking in them. I kept this 

 bird two days, but when I found that the poor thing could procure no 

 food, I gave it its liberty, and was glad to find that its wounded wing 

 was so far healed as to allow it to fly thirty or forty yards at a time, so 

 that it had a good chance of being able to reach its favourite pines 

 again, with the scent of which it was strongly imbued. 



When on a high tree, it looks as if entirely black. Generally too, 

 even when seen close at hand, the red line over the eye is covered by 

 the adjacent feathers ; at least this was the case with the two indivi- 

 duals mentioned above. The one which died had its gizzard crammed 

 with the heads of small ants and a few minute coleopterous insects. It 

 is fond of the company of our small Woodpeckers, as well as of Sylvia 

 pinus and Pariis Carolinensis. 



I have found this bird mated in January in the Florldas, and en- 

 gaged in preparing a breeding place in February. The nest is not 

 unfrequently bored in a decayed stump about thirty feet high, the 

 wreck of a noble pine, destroyed by the irresistible fury of a hurricane. 

 The eggs, which are usually foiu", although I have found as many as 

 six, are smooth and pure white. The young, like those of om- other 

 species, crawl out of their holes, and on the branches around wait for 

 the food brought by their parents, until they are able to shift for them- 

 selves. 



In the winter months, I have seen several of these birds enter a 

 hole at dusk, where they probably remained all night ; and in cold 

 drizzly weather I have observed them doing the same at various hours 

 of the day. When wounded, I have several times seen them making 

 toward these retreats. There is little difference between the sexes, 

 excepting that the red line over the eye is wanting in the female. 

 Wilson's measurements are less than those of any individuals which I 

 have examined. 



It is generally believed that all Woodpeckers are strictly insec- 

 tivorous ; but this opinion is by no means correct, for many species 



