54 
BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
special contribution, whence the bird's common name, Sapsucker. I 
have seen a black birch which a family of Sapsuckers had tapped, 
and were tippling at with great assiduity. The sap issued through a 
number of holes which had been made in the bark, and was soon 
evaporated to a sweet syrup. The woodpeckers appeared to remain 
continually in the woods in the vicinity of the birch, and came so 
often for a taste of the sweet that it was rare when there was not at 
least one partaking. But the feast was not enjoyed by the wood- 
peckers alone, as many humming birds, bees and flies came for a 
share. 
In size this woodpecker is like the Hairy, though it may be readily 
told at a distance by the large white bar on its wings, and also by its 
cry, which is wholly unlike that of any of our common woodpeckers. 
Ceophloeus pileatus. Pileated Woodpecker. 405. 
This giant woodpecker, nearly equal in size to a crow, is a rarity. 
Mr. Shute's collection at Newmarket contains one or two that were 
taken at Lee some years ago, but there are few people about here that 
have ever seen one, though a little farther inland, where there is more 
hard wood, they are not very uncommon. The power of one of these 
birds and the racket he can make when hard at work is astonishing. 
I have seen one on a dying oak, on a portion of which the bark was 
loose and gave shelter to more or less insects. He began low and 
worked upward, throwing, right and left, strips of bark a foot long, 
and gathering the insects as they hurried to secrete themselves. When 
at work on resounding wood, his blows sound as if made by a carpen- 
ters hammer. His regular diet consists of Cerambycid beetle larvae, 
or " borers" as they are commonly termed, beetles, ants, and other 
insects that find shelter on, or in trees. In summer and autumn he 
sometimes eats fruit, and I have known one to come daily to a black 
cherry tree for cherries. 
Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Red-headed Wood- 
pecker. 406. 
This is an abundant resident in the west, but a rarity here. I 
believe Mr. Shaw's collection at Hampton contains two specimens in 
immature plumage. The adult is a handsome bird, with its red head 
and neck, its bluish-black back, and white wing tips. It may be 
recognized when flying as far as one can see it, by the color of the 
outer half of its wings, which are white. It does not live so much in 
the woods as others of its race, but prefers the orchard or open grove. 
