man, the eggs and young of this family enjoy a more complete immunity from danger 

 than those of any other. The cunning Crdw and noisy Jay, both ever on the alert for 

 a frolic after bird's eggs, are here balked ; while rain cannot enter, and the mink, weazel, 

 and other noxious animals find their keen noses of little avail. Snakes may, and doubt- 

 less do sometimes enter the holes of the larger species, but even they probably bestow 

 more of their attentions on ground and bush building birds. All the endless little artistic 

 contrivances for concealment so artfully enlployed by other birds in the construction of 

 their nests are here needless, and consequently ignored. In view^ of the manifest advan- 

 tages attendant upon this mode of nidification, it is a matter of no little surprise that 

 Woodpeckers are not more numerous, especially when it is taken into consideration that 

 the habit of roosting in holes at all seasons of the year must protect the adults, as well 

 as young, from many nocturnal dangers. Lack of suitable opportunities for nesting, or 

 obtaining food, may doubtless be taken as explanatory of the comparative fewness of 

 these birds in the older settled sections. In fact, the wilderness is the true home of the 

 Woodpeckers, and in all primitive forest regions they abound. There Nature reigns 

 supreme, and in defiance of artificial laws and cultivated ideas of sylvan beauty, allows 

 her woods to fill with the decaying forms of her dead subjects, — huge moss-clad trunks, 

 picturesque in shape, and by their grim, gaunt aspect adding wildness to an already 

 picturesque scene. In such congenial haunts these birds find all their wants supplied, 

 food being plenty and easily obtained, and the selection of a nesting site a matter of no 

 difficulty." The foregoing excellent account of the Woodpeckers in general, by Prof. Wm. 

 Brewster, well applies also to our most beautiful and familiar Red-headed Woodpecker, 

 once a common and well-known bird in all the wooded regions of eastern North America, 

 west to the Rocky Mountains (and casually westward to Salt Lake valley and Arizona), 

 and fi-om Florida and Texas north to about latitude 50°. In many parts of New 

 England and of the densely populated districts in the Northern States it has become a 

 rare bird of late owingtothe constant persecutions of indiscriminate and senseless gunners. 

 Common in the days of my boyJiood in Wisconsin, it is now rare in many districts, except 

 in some favorable localities where the bird has been protected. In Milwaukee it is a 

 rather common summer sojourner in the remnants of maple woods which are still found 

 in the residence part of the city. Opposite my home in Milwaukee it regularly breeds in 

 the small group of trees on the grounds of the Milwaukee Hospital. 



In the northern part of the country the Red-headed Woodpecker is a regular 

 migrant, leaving late in September and usually returning in the first week of May, 

 when its loud and melodious call-notes, sounding like hurr-hurr, are heard from all sides, 

 adding a peculiar charm to the budding and blossoming spring landscape. Many of 

 these birds are said to winter in the Northern States in certain years when they can 

 find an abundant supply of food. Even in northern New York it is numerous, according 

 to Dr. C. Hart Merriam, during such winters when the beech nuts are abundant, while 

 they are altogether absent when the harvest of these nuts has been scarce. In Wisconsin 

 and northern Illinois I have never found them in winter, and even in south-western 

 Missouri, where they are very numerous in summer, only a few spend the cold season in 

 the bottom woods, the majority moving farther south. According to Prof. R. Ridgway, 

 they are abundant in the bottom woods of northern Illinois during the inclement season 



