160 BIRDS 



getting it, of course, bring about most, if not all, of the 

 variations from the family type. Each is fitted for its own 

 life, "even as you and I." 



Like the pigeon, the humming-bird, and several other 

 birds, parent flickers pump partly digested food from their 

 own crops into those of their hungry fledglings. Luckily 

 they do not need to carry ants to them one by one. 



The Red-headed Woodpecker 



Length — 8.5 to 9.75 inches. An inch or less smaller than 

 the robin. 



Male and Female — ^Head, neck, and throat crimson; breast 

 and underneath white; back black and white; wings and 

 tail blue black, with broad white band on wings con- 

 spicuous in flight. 



Range — ^Umited States, east of Rocky Motmtains, except 

 New England, and north to Manitoba. 



Migrations — Abundant but irregular. 

 {See plate, page 163.) 



A pair of red-headed woodpeckers, who made their home 

 in an old tree next the station yard at Atlanta, where loco- 

 motives clanged, puffed, whistled, and shrieked all day 

 long, evidently enjoyed the noise, for the male liked noth- 

 ing better than to add to it by tapping on one of the glass 

 non-conductors around which a telegraph wire ran. 

 When first the handsome, tri-colored fellow was seen there 

 he was almost enveloped in a cloud of smoke escaping from 

 a puffing locomotive on the track next the telegraph pole, 

 yet he tapped away unconcerned and as merrily as you 

 would play a two-step on the piano. When the vapor 



