RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 447 
not only nests in the orchard which supplies him with suste- 
nance, but ventures to rear his brood within the boundaries of 
the most populous towns. In the latter end of summer its 
reiterated tappings and cackling screams are frequently heard 
from the shady forests which border the rivulets in more 
secluded and less fertile tracts. It is also not uncommon to 
observe them on the fence-rails and posts near the public 
roads, flitting before the passenger with the familiarity of 
Sparrows. In the Southern States, where the mildness of the 
climate prevents the necessity of migration, this brilliant bird 
seems half domestic. The ancient live-oak, his cradle and 
residence, is cherished as a domicile; he creeps around its 
ponderous weathered arms, views the passing scene with com- 
placence, turns every insect visit to his advantage, and for 
hours together placidly reconnoitres the surrounding fields. At 
times he leaves his lofty citadel to examine the rails of the 
fence or the boards of the adjoining barn; striking terror into 
his lurking prey by the stridulous tappings of his bill, he 
hearkens to their almost inaudible movements, and discovering 
their retreat, dislodges them from their burrows by quickly 
and dexterously chiselling out the decaying wood in which they 
are hid, and transfixing them with his sharp and barbed 
tongue. But his favorite and most productive resort is to the 
adjoining fields of dead and girdled trees, amidst whose 
bleaching trunks and crumbling branches he long continues to 
find an ample repast of depredating and boring insects. When 
the cravings of appetite are satisfied, our busy hunter occa- 
sionally gives way to a playful or quarrelsome disposition, and 
with shrill and lively vociferations not unlike those of the 
neighboring tree-frog, he pursues in a graceful, curving flight his 
companions or rivals round the bare limbs of some dead tree 
to which they resort for combat or frolic. 
About the middle of May, in Pennsylvania, they burrow out 
or prepare their nests in the large limbs of trees, adding no 
materials to the cavity which they smooth out for the purpose. 
As with the Bluebird, the same tree continues to be employed 
for several years in succession, and probably by the same undi- 
