RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 97 
steel blue, is so striking and characteristic, and his predatory habits 
in the orchards and corn-fields, added to his numbers, and fondness for 
hovering along the fences, so very notorious, that almost every child 
is acquainted with the Red-headed Woodpecker. In the immediate 
neighborhood of our large cities, where the old timber is chiefly cut 
down, he is not so frequently found; and yet, at this present time, 
(June, 1808,) I know of several of their nests within the boundaries 
of the city of Philadelphia. Two of these are in buttonwood-trees 
ae occidentalis,) and another in. the decayed limb of an elm. 
e old ones, I observe, make their excursions regularly to the woods 
beyond the Schuylkill, about a mile distant ; preserving great silence 
and circumspection in visiting their nests,— precautions not much 
attended to by them in the depth of the woods, because there the 
prying eye of man is less to be dreaded. Towards the mountains, 
particularly in the vicinity of creeks and rivers, these birds are ex- 
tremely abundant, especially in the latter end of summer. Wherever 
you travel: in the interior at that season, you hear them screaming 
from the adjoining woods, rattling on the dead limbs of trees, or on 
the fences, where they are perpetually seen flitting from stake to 
stake, on the roadside, before you. Wherever there is a tree, or trees, 
of the wild cherry, covered with ripe fruit, there you see them busy 
among the branches; and, in passing orchards, you may easily know 
‘where to find the earliest, sweetest apples, by observing those trees, 
on or near which the Red-headed Woodpecker is skulking ; for he is 
so excellent a connoisseur in fruit, that wherever an apple or pear is 
found broached by him, it is sure to be among the ripest and best 
flavored: when alarmed, he seizes a capital one by striking his open 
bill deep into it, and bears it off to the woods. When the Indian 
corn is in its rich, succulent, milky state, he attacks it with great 
eagerness, opening a passage through the numerous folds of the husk, 
and feeding on it with voracity. The girdled, or deadened timber, so 
common among corn-fields in the back settlements, are his favorite 
retreats, whence he sallies out to make his depredations. He is fond 
of the ripe berries of the sour gum, and pays pretty regular visits to 
the cherry-trees, when loaded with fruit. Towards fall he often ap- 
proaches the barn or farm-house, and raps on the shingles and weather 
boards: he is of a gay and frolicsome disposition; and half a dozen 
of the fraternity are frequently seen diving and vociferating around 
the high, dead limbs of some large tree, pursuing and playing with 
each other, and amusing the passenger with their gambols. Their 
note, or cry, is shrill and lively, and so much’resembles that of a 
species of tree-frog which frequents the same tree, that it is some- 
times difficult to distinguish the one from the other. 
Such are the vicious traits, if I may so speak, in the character of 
the Red-headed Woodpecker; and I doubt not but, from what has 
been said on this subject, that some readers would consider it merito- 
rious to exterminate the whole tribe as a nuisance ; and, in fact, the 
legislatures of some of our provinces, in former times, offered pre- 
feed almost entirely on the rich fruits and ripe grains of the country. The chaste 
and simple-colored Picus bicolor, from.the Minas Geraies, I believe, will be another 
representative of this form. — Ep. 
