272 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
sticking his open bill deep into it, and bears it off to 
the woods.’ 
“This bird is named from the deep scarlet hue 
of his head-feathers ; the upper part of the body is 
black and steel-blue, and the lower part white 
from the breast down. It is nine and a half inches 
long. 
“ The nests of all woodpeckers are alike — holes 
dug with their long sharp bills in the trunks or 
limbs of trees. The red-headed woodpecker is very 
shy about his nest, being careful in visiting it not 
to be noticed. This precaution is not taken in the 
depth of the woods, where the prying eye of man is 
not supposed to enter ; but there there is a deadly 
foe against whose depredations neither the height of 
the tree nor the depth of the cavity is the least se- 
curity. This is the poor cat-bird’s terror, the hateful 
black snake, 4 who frequently glides up the trunk of 
the tree, and like a skulking savage enters the wood- 
pecker’s peaceful apartment, devours the eggs or 
helpless young in spite of the cries and flutterings 
of the parents, and, if the place is large enough, 
coils himself up in the spot they occupied, where 
he will sometimes remain for several days.’ 
“ This,” continued Miss Harson , 44 might be a warn- 
ing, I should think, to heartless boys : 4 The eager 
schoolboy, after hazarding his neck to reach the 
