KINGFISHER (Ceryle alcyon). 



Length, about 13 inches. Not to be confused 

 with any other American bird. 



Range: Breeds from northwestern Alaska and 

 central Canada south to the southern border of the 

 United States; winters from British Columbia, 

 Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Virginia south 

 to the West Indies, Colombia and Guiana. 



The cry of the kingfisher, which suggests a watch- 

 man's rattle in vigorous hands, can be mistaken for 

 the note of no other bird; nor, for that matter, is 

 the bird himself likely to be confused with any other 

 species. Whether flying, perched on a branch over a 

 stream, or diving for small fish, our kingfisher is 

 always himself, borrowing none of his peculiarities 

 from his neighbors. Many of his tropical brothers 

 catch insects for a living; but our bird, early in the 

 history of the development of the kingfisher family, 

 discovered that fish were easier to catch and in the 

 long run more filling than insects, and hence re- 

 nounced the family habit and assumed the role cf 

 fisherman. Instead of using a hollow tree as a nest 

 site, the kingfisher has apparently learned a lesson 

 from the sandswallows and excavates a burrow for 

 himself in some sandbank, usually not far from pond 

 or stream; and you may be sure that any pond 

 chosen by him for a haunt is well stocked with fish. 

 The fish he kills are chiefly minnows and of small 

 value, but the bird sometimes makes a nuisance of 

 himself about fish hatcheries, where his skill in 

 catching young food fish often brings him speedy 

 doom. 



RED-HEAD (Melanerpes erythrocephalus). 



Length, about 9f inches. Our only woodpecker 

 with red head and broad white wing patch. 



Range: From southern Canada to the Gulf Coast 

 and from central Montana, central Colorado, and 

 central Texas to the Hudson and Delaware. Gen- 

 erally resident, but more or less migratory in the 

 southern parts of its range. 



This strikingly marked and readily identified 

 woodpecker is common in some localities and en- 

 tirely wanting in others which apparently arc equally 

 well adapted to the bird's needs. Its habits arc a 

 combination of woodpecker, jay and flycatcher, and 

 catching insects on the wing is a common habit. 

 Though in general migratory, the bird is apparently 

 indifferent to cold and other weather conditions, 

 and winters wherever food abounds, especially 

 where beechnuts, of which it is very fond, are plenti- 

 ful. The red-head eats nearly twice as much vege- 

 table food as it docs animal, but the latter includes 

 many destructive insects. For instance, it is greatly 

 to its credit that it eats both species of clover beetles, 

 the corn weevil, ' cherry scale and 17-year cicada. 

 On the other hand, vigorous accusations are not 

 wanting from various parts of the country of damage 

 done by this species. It cats corn on the ear, and 

 attacks many kinds of small fruits, including straw- 

 berries and apples. It is also guilty of robbing the 

 nests of wild birds of both eggs and nestlings. It 

 does some damage to telegraph poles by boring into 

 them to make nests. No doubt some of these 

 charges are well founded. For the most part they 

 represent the occasional acts of individuals, or are 

 local and not characteristic of the species as a whole. 



RED-SHAFTED FLICKER (Colaptes cafer 

 collaris). 



Length, 12 to 14 inches. To be distinguished from 

 its eastern relative (C. auratus) by its red mustache 

 and nuchal band and the red wing and tail shafts. 



Range: Rocky mountain region from British 

 Columbia south to Mexico, west to the coast moun- 

 tains in Oregon and AVashington, and through Cali- 

 fornia; largely resident. 



Few birds are more widely known than the flicker, 

 as appears from the fact, recorded by Chapman, 

 that in the various parts of the country it appears 

 under no fewer than 124 aliases. Though well 

 known, the flicker is more often heard than seen, its 

 loud call often proclaiming its presence when it is 

 hidden among the trees. As a rule the flicker is 

 shy and in some sections of the country it has good 

 reason to be, since it is accounted a game bird and, 

 as such, pursued for the table. 



Though a woodpecker, the red-shaft departs 

 widely from typical members of the tribe both in 

 structure and habits. Notwithstanding the fact 

 that its bill is not well adapted for boring into wood 

 for larva?, the bird manages to do considerable 

 damage in the west by making holes, in church 

 steeples, school houses and other buildings, to serve 

 as roosting quarters. As it is nowise particular as 

 to its domicile, it is possible materially to increase 

 its numbers by putting up nesting boxes for its 

 accomodation. The bird's subsistence is obtained 

 largely from the ground, where it secures vast 

 quantities of ants, for taking which its tongue is 

 specially adapted; about one half its food in fact 

 consists of these creatures. The flicker also con- 

 sumes grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles, but it is 

 so much of a vegetarian that the list of berries and 

 seeds it eats is a long one, though it is not accused of 

 taking domestic fruit. 



CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER (Melanerpes 

 formicivorus and races). 



Length, about 9} inches. Easily distinguished 

 from its fellows by its general black color, white 

 forehead, throat patch, belly and wing patch. 



Range: Breeds from northwestern Oregon, Cali- 

 fornia, Arizona, and New Mexico south through 

 Lower California to Costa Rica. 



The California woodpecker is a noisy, frolicsome 

 bird and by all odds the most interesting cf ourwood- 

 peckers. Its range seems to be determined by that 

 of the oaks upon which it lives and from which it 

 draws a large part of its subsistence. In California 

 the bird is known to many by the Spanish name, 

 carpinlero, or carpenter, and its shop is the oak, in 

 the dead limbs of which, as in the bark of pines, it 

 bores innumerable holes, each just large enough 

 to receive an acorn. That the birds do not regard 

 the filling of these storehouses as work, but on the 

 contrary take great pleasure in it, is evident 

 from their joyous outcries and from the manner 

 they chase each other in their trips from tree to 

 tree like boys at tag. In California many of the 

 country school houses are unoccupied during the 

 summer and the woodpeckers do serious damage by 

 drilling holes in the window casings and elsewhere 

 with a view to using them as storage places. As 

 long as the acorn crop lasts, so long does the storing 

 work go on. Meanwhile the jays and squirrels 

 slip in and rob the woodpecker's larder. Though this 

 woodpecker eats insects, including some harmfuL 

 ones, they form less than a third of its entire fare. 



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