RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 



149 



examination, to preponderate against their vices, let us avail 

 ourselves of the former, while we guard as well as we can 

 against the latter. 



Though this bird occasionally regales himself on fruit, yet 

 his natural and most useful food is insects, particularly those 

 numerous and destructive species that penetrate the bark and 

 body of the tree to deposit their eggs and larvae, the latter of 

 which are well known to make immense havoc. That insects 

 are his natural food is evident from the construction of his 

 wedge- formed bill, the length, elasticity, and figure of his 

 tongue, and the strength and position of his claws, as well as 

 from his usual habits. In fact, insects form at least two-thirds 

 of his subsistence ; and his stomach is scarcely ever found 

 without them. He searches for them with a dexterity and in- 

 telligence, I may safely say, more than human ; he perceives, 

 by the exterior appearance of the bark, where they lurk below; 

 when he is dubious, he rattles vehemently on the outside with 

 his bill, and his acute ear distinguishes the terrified vermin 

 shrinking within to their inmost retreats, where his pointed 

 and barbed tongue soon reaches them. The masses of bugs, 

 caterpillars, and other larvse, which I have taken from the 

 stomachs of these birds, have often surprised me. These 



woodpecker is, -when, in consequence of the sudden vibration produced 

 in the upper part, the bird is thrown off dead." 



According to the same gentleman, many of the red-heads (a name by 

 which they are universally known) remain in the southern districts of 

 the United States during the whole winter. The greater number, how- 

 ever, pass to countries farther south. Their migration takes place dur- 

 ing night, is commenced in the middle of September, and continues for 

 a month or six weeks. They then fly high above the trees, far apart, 

 like a disbanded army, propelling themselves by reiterated flaps of their 

 wings at the end of each successive curve which they describe in their 

 flight. The note which they emit at this time is different from the usual 

 one, sharp, and easily heard from the ground, although the birds may 

 bo out of sight. At the dawn of day, the whole alight on the tops of 

 the dead trees about the plantations, and remain in search of food until 

 the approach of sunset, when they again, one after another, mount the 

 air, and continue their journey.— Ed. 



