THE WOODPECKERS. 151 
red head and neck. It is a much more conspicuous 
bird than the all-red cardinal or black-winged tanager, 
and of late, if not always, the birds seem to know it 
and are shy, keeping well among the trees, and quite 
near their tops at that. This is a sad change and 
none to their liking. It is not so long ago that the 
red-headed woodpecker was a bird of the fields, and 
particularly of the old, weed-grown worm-fences ; and 
he was an expert fly-catcher, and launched out after 
beetles as gracefully as a kingbird, and never missed 
his aim. He loved the old apple-orchards, and his 
presence there was as natural as the bloom in May 
or the ruddy fruit in October. Dr. Warren suggests 
that the demand for millinery purposes has brought 
about the change. Even our new dictionaries do not 
give us the words that are needed to comment on 
this matter, and probably the world will not wake up 
until the birds are gone altogether. 
These birds are very fond of wild fruit, and Wilson 
says are excellent judges of apples; but they eat, as 
do all woodpeckers, any quantity of insects, and earn 
and always did earn what they took from the orchard. 
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is rare in the eastern 
portions of the Middle States, but abundant west- 
ward. They appear to prefer the hilly regions, or 
have been driven back by the general destruction of 
the timber. 
Nuttall states,— 
“ His loud and harsh call of ’¢show, ’¢show, ’tshow, ’tshow, reiterated 
like the barking of a cur, may often be heard, through the course of 
the day, to break the silence of the wilderness in which his congenial 
tribe are almost the only residents. On a fine spring morning I have 
