The White-headed Woodpeckers 
everywhere its favorite summer food; and concerning its winter provender 
Dr. Merrill speaks authoritatively: 1 “So far as I have observed, and 
during the winter I watched it carefully, its principal supply of food is 
obtained in the bark, most of the pines having a very rough bark, scaly 
and deeply fissured. The bird uses its bill as a crowbar, rather than as 
a hammer or chisel, prying off the successive scales and layers of bark in 
a very characteristic way. This explains the fact of its being such a 
quiet worker, and, as would be expected, it is most often seen near the 
base of the tree, where the bark is thickest and roughest. It must destroy 
immense numbers of Scolytidce, whose larvae tunnel the bark so extensively, 
and of other insects that crawl beneath the scales of bark for shelter 
during winter. I have several times imitated the work of this bird by 
prying off the successive layers of bark, and have been astonished at the 
great number of insects, and especially of spiders, so exposed. As a result 
of this, and of its habit of so searching for food, the White-headed Wood¬ 
peckers killed here were loaded with fat to a degree I have never seen 
equalled in any land bird, and scarcely surpassed by some Sandpipers 
in autumn.” 
The White-headed Woodpecker is a rather quiet bird both in manner 
and voice. I had been acquainted with the bird for years, and had even 
taken its eggs, without having once heard it utter a sound; but in the 
San Jacinto Mountains, in June, 1913, I heard a double or treble call- 
note, chick-up or chick-it-up, which reminded me somewhat of the Cabanis’s 
cry. Mr. Stephens also reports (MS) a “drumming, or mating call, which 
was rendered in May on the broken limb of an oak. The blows were very 
rapid and the bird’s head made a blur of motion for a second or so at a 
time, after which the drummer would pause and glance about to note the 
possible effect of his performance.” 
Although rather wary, this woodpecker knows how to save its face 
when taken by surprise. It neither endeavors to escape by dodging 
around a tree and fleeing behind cover, as do the Sapsuckers, nor to make 
off with an air of ostentatious offense, such as the Cabanis Woodpecker 
indulges on like occasions. No; the White-head is always decorous, self- 
contained, and above suspicion—save when his nest is discovered. Then, 
indeed, his nerves may go to pieces. 
In the San Jacinto Mountains, where these White-heads outnumber 
all other Woodpeckers combined, our attention was drawn, on the 6th 
day of June, by a male who tittered anxiously as we stumbled along the 
rough trail. We camped on the prospect immediately, but it took a full 
hour to trace the “damage” to a hole fifty feet up in a yellow pine stub, 
which was three feet through at the base. It was the female who took, 
1 The Auk, Vol. V., 1888, p. 253. 
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