THE GOLDEN- AVING AND RED-IIEAD 
211 
It is a good thing to feed wild birds of all spe- 
cies that are either useful or beautiful. The 
woodpeckers are the largest insectivorous birds 
that remain in the North over winter, and they 
appreciate friendly offerings of suet or fat pork, 
nailed high up on conspicuous tree-trunks. In 
the Zoological Park we put up every winter at 
least twenty-five two-pound strips of fat pork, 
for the woodpeckers and chickadees which live 
with us all the year round. 
The Golden-Winged Woodpecker 1 is my 
favorite of the members of this Order. It is a 
bird of good size, dignified in bearing, decidedly 
handsome, and a great worker. He loves to 
hunt insects on the ground, occasionally, but 
is very alert and watchful, meanwhile. If you 
approach too near, he leaps into the air, and with 
a succession of wave-like sweeps upward and 
downward, his golden wings Hash back one of 
his names as he flies to safety on some distant 
post or tree. Unlike most birds of this Order, 
this species frequently perches crosswise on a 
limb, like a true perching-bird. 
This is the woodpecker of many names, some 
of which are Flicker, High-Hole and Yellow- 
Hammer. His regular call sounds like “Cheer 
up!” but in spring he gives forth a call which 
comes very near to being a song. When written 
out, it is like “Cook-cook-cook-cook! ” At that 
season, also, you hear this bird beat the “long 
roll,” on a drum which Nature provides -for him 
in the shape of a hollow tree with a thin, hard 
shell. The rapidity and force with which the 
bird strikes the blows producing this sound are 
almost beyond belief. 
An examination of the stomach contents of 
many specimens of this species showed 56 per 
cent of insect food, 39 vegetable, and 5 mineral. 
Of the insect food, ants made up 43 per cent and 
beetles 10 per cent. The vegetable food repre- 
sented two kinds of grain (corn and buckwheat), 
eighteen kinds of wild berries, and fifteen kinds 
of seeds, mostly of weeds. Out of ninety-eight 
stomachs examined in September and October 
only four contained corn. Practically, this bird 
does no damage to man’s crops, but destroys 
great quantities of harmful insects. 
The range of the Golden-Wing embraces the 
eastern half of the United States to the Rocky 
1 Co-lap'tes au-ra'tus lu'te-us. Length, about 12 
inches. 
Mountains, where it is met by the Red-Shafted 
Flicker of the Pacific slope. 
The Red-Headed Woodpecker 2 need not 
be described, because, in “Hiawatha,” Long- 
fellow has immortalized it. This bird, “with 
the crimson tuft of feathers,” was the identical 
Mama which gave Hiawatha the timely tip 
which enabled him to put the finishing touch to 
old Megissogwon, and so end in triumph “the 
greatest battle that the sun had ever looked on.” 
GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER. 
As a return for this kindness, Hiawatha did 
the one mean act of his life. He took Mama’s little 
red scalp, and “ decked” his pipe-stem with it, — 
as coolly as if he had been a modern servant-girl 
decorating a forty-nine-cent hat. 
This is a very showy bird, and recognizable 
almost as far as it can be seen, — brilliant crim- 
son head and neck ; white breast, sides and rump, 
and jet-black back and tail. In the Mississippi 
Valley, thirty years ago, this was one of the most 
common birds. Now, thanks to man’s insa- 
tiable desire to “kill something” that is un- 
2 Mel-an-er'pes e-ryth-ro-ceph' a-lus. Length, 
inches. 
