THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



{Mglanerpes erythrocephalus.) 



The Red-headed Woodpecker, as its 

 name indicates, has a red head, inckid- 

 ing the neck and breast; its back, 

 primaries, secondaries, except the ends, 

 tail and a very narrow strip around the 

 tipper and forepart of the bill are steel 

 or blue-black; its rump, under parts and 

 ends of the secondaries are white. As 

 Mr. Burroughs says: "His deliberate, 

 dignified ways and his bright uniform 

 of red, white and steel blue bespeak 

 him as an officer of rank." The sug- 

 gestion has been made that because of 

 his extensive range, usefulness and the 

 fact that his colors are those of our 

 flag — red, white and blue — he instead 

 of the eagle, ought to be the national 

 bird, and, for one, I am in sympathy 

 with this suggestion. There is very 

 little difference, if any, in the color and 

 size of the male and female. During 

 the summer and autumn the young of 

 this Woodpecker are quite different in 

 appearance from that of the adult. The 

 crimson parts are repilaced by grayish- 

 brown, and the white on the wings is 

 spotted with black. The adults are 

 most attractive birds, and are from 

 eight and one-half to nine and three- 

 fourths inches in length, and a little 

 smaller than the robin. 



The range of the Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker extends from the southern part 

 of the United States into the eastern 

 provinces of the Dominion of Canada 

 to about latitude 46 degrees; west in 

 the United States into the eastern 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains, from 

 Montana to Colorado, and the eastern 

 half of Texas. In the eastern part of 

 the United States it is irregular. Its 

 migration depends very much upon the 

 obtainable supply of food, which for- 

 merly, during the winter months, con- 

 sisted largely of beechnuts and acorns 

 that had been stored away by it in the 



knot-holes of the trees and the cracks 

 of fence stakes. My brother and I. 

 when we were boys, were required to 

 get, in the winter, wood from our fath- 

 er's woodland, which was composed 

 largely of sugar maple and beech trees. 

 We seldom ever felled a tree that we 

 did not examine it to see if there were 

 any knot-holes in it which had been 

 taken possession of by the Woodpeck- 

 ers, and usually we were rewarded for 

 our trouble. Often we would get a 

 quart of beechnuts from one of the 

 holes. It was surprising how tightly 

 the beechnuts were stored away in the 

 holes. Those were the palmy days with 

 brother and me and these Woodpeck- 

 ers. We were full of life and exuber- 

 ance. The extensive forests of beech 

 and oak furnished them their winter 

 supply of food, and the decaying trees 

 in the .many "clearings" their summer 

 supply of insects and larvae with which 

 to feed their young. It is not so now. 

 Brother and I have grown old. The 

 forests have disappeared, and when the 

 winter comes the Woodpeckers must 

 migrate southward until they find a 

 place where their food is not covered 

 with snow. In the summer time they 

 are compelled to obtain much of their 

 food from the air and the ground, and 

 because of this they are taking on new 

 habits of Hfe. Many of them are be- 

 coming adept flycatchers, and it is in- 

 teresting to see them dart off from a 

 place of advantage and catch a passing 

 insect on the wing or a grasshopper or 

 beetle that may be on the ground. At 

 Buzzard's Roost we have many fine 

 beech trees. One of these is the largest 

 of its kind that I have ever seen. At the 

 base it measures fifteen feet in circum- 

 ference. These trees are to be preserved 

 for the birds, and as an evidence of 

 what was at one time plentiful in this 



