176 
RED-IIEADED WOODPECKER. 
that season, you heai' them screaming from the adjoining woods, rattling 
on the dead limbs of trees or on the fences, where they are perpetually 
seen flitting from stake to stake, on the roadside before you. Wherever 
there is a tree, or trees, of the wild-cherry, covered with ride fruit, there 
you see them busy among the branches ; and in passing orchards, you 
may easily know M'here to find the earliest, sweetest apples, by observ- 
ing those trees, on or near which the Red-headed Woodpecker is skulk- 
ing ; for he is so excellent a connoisseur in fruit, that wherever an apple 
or pear is found broached by him, it is sure to be amongst the ripest and 
best flavored. When alarmed, he seizes a capital one by striking his open 
bill deep into it, and bears it ofi" to the woods. When the Indian corn 
is in its rich, succulent, milky state, he attacks it with great eagerness, 
opening a passage through the numerous folds of the husk, and feeding 
on it with voracity. The girdled, or deadened timber, so common 
among corn-fields, in the back settlements, are his favorite retreats, 
whence he sallies out to make his depredations. He is fond of the ripe 
berries of the sour gum ; and pays pretty regular visits to the cherry- 
trees, when loaded with fruit. Towards fall, he often approaches the 
barn, or farm-house, and raps on the shingles and weather-boards. He 
is of a gay and frolicksome disposition ; and half a dozen of the frater- 
nity are frequently seen diving and vociferating around the high dead 
limbs of some large tree, pursuing and playing with each other, and 
amusing the passenger with their gambols. Their note or cry is shrill 
and lively, and so much resembles that of a species of tree frog, which 
frequents the same tree, that it is sometimes difiicult to distinguish the 
one from the other. 
Such are the vicious traits, if I may so speak, in the character of the 
Red-headed Woodpecker ; and I doubt not but from what has been said 
on this subject, tliat some readers would consider it meritorious to exter- 
minate the whole tribe, as a nuisance ; and in fact the legislatures of 
some of our provinces, in former times, offered premiums, to the amount 
of twopence per head, for their destruction.* But let us not condemn 
the species unheard. They exist; they must therefore be necessary. 
If their merits and usefulness be found, on 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 natu- 
ral, and most useful, food is insects, particularly those numerous and 
destructive species that penetrate the bark and body of the tree, to de- 
posit their eggs and larvpe, 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 
Kalm. 
