THE GOLDEN-WING AND RED-HEAD 



211 



It is a good thing to feed wild birds of all spe- 

 cies that are cither useful or beautiful. The 

 woodpeckers are the largest insectivorous birds 

 that remain in the North over winter, and they 

 appreciate friendly offerings of suet or fat pork, 

 nailed high up on conspicuous tree-trunks. In 

 the Zoological Park we put up every winter at 

 least twenty-five two-pound strips of fat pork, 

 for the woodpeckers and chickadees which live 

 with us all the year round. 



The Golden-Winged Woodpecker 1 is my 

 favorite of the members of this Order. It is a 

 bird of good size, dignified in bearing, decidedly 

 handsome, and a great worker. He loves to 

 hunt insects on the ground, occasionally, but 

 is very alert and watchful, meanwhile. If you 

 approach too near, he leaps into the air, and with 

 a succession of wave-like sweeps upward and 

 downward, his golden wings flash back one of 

 his names as he flies to safety on some distant 

 post or tree. Unlike most birds of this Order, 

 this species frequently perches crosswdse on a 

 limb, like a true perching-bird. 



This is the woodpecker of many names, some 

 of which are Flicker, High-Hole and Yellow- 

 Hammer. His regular call sounds like "Cheer 

 up!" but in spring he gives forth a call which 

 comes very near to being a song. When written 

 out, it is like "Cook-cook-cook-cook! " At that 

 season, also, you hear this bird beat the "long 

 roll," on a drum which Nature provides for him 

 in the shape of a hollow tree with a thin, hard 

 shell. The rapidity and force with which the 

 bird strikes the blows producing this sound are 

 almost beyond belief. 



An examination of the stomach contents of 

 many specimens of this species showed 56 per 

 cent of insect food, 39 vegetable, and 5 mineral. 

 Of the insect food, ants made up 43 per cent and 

 beetles 10 per cent. The vegetable food repre- 

 sented two kinds of grain (corn and buckwheat), 

 eighteen kinds of wild berries, and fifteen kinds 

 of seeds, mostly of weeds. Out of ninety-eight 

 stomachs examined in September and October 

 only four contained corn. Practically, this bird 

 does no damage to man's crops, but destroys 

 great quantities of harmful insects. 



The range of the Golden-Wing embraces the 

 eastern half of the United States to the Rocky 



Mountains, where it is met by the Red-Shafted 

 Flicker of the Pacific slope. 



The Red-Headed Woodpecker 2 need not 

 be described, because, in "Hiawatha," Long- 

 fellow has immortalized it. This bird, "with 

 the crimson tuft of feathers," was the identical 

 Mama which gave Hiawatha the timely tip 

 which enabled him to put the finishing touch to 

 old Megissogwon, and so end in triumph "the 

 greatest battle that the sun had ever looked on." 



GOLDEN -WINGED WOODPECKER. 



As a return for this kindness, Hiawatha did 

 the one mean act of his life. He took Mama's little 

 red scalp, and "decked " his pipe-stem with it, — 

 as coolly as if he had been a modern servant-girl 

 decorating a forty-nine-cent hat. 



This is a very showy bird, and recognizable 

 almost as far as it can be seen, — brilliant crim- 

 son head and neck; white breast, sides and rump, 

 and jet-black back and tail. In the Mississippi 

 Valley, thirty years ago, this was one of the most 

 common birds. Now, thanks to man's insa- 

 tiable desire to "kill something" that is un- 



1 Co-lap'tes au-ra'tus lu'te-us. 

 inches. 



Length, about 12 



2 Mel-an-er'pes e-ryth-ro-ceph'a-lus. 

 inches. 



Length, 9£ 



