12 
WOODPECKEES. 
renewing its blows with fresh vigour, all the M'hile 
sounding its loud notes, as if delighted. 
Exce]:)ting wdien digging a hole for the reception of 
their eggs, these birds seldom, if ever, attack living 
trees for any other purpose than that of procuring 
food. They nestle earlier in the spring than any 
other species of the tribe. The hole is, I believe, 
always made in flie trunk of a live tree, generally an 
asli or a hagberry, and is at a great height. 
The male and female were frequently observed by 
jMr. Audubon to retire for rest for the night into the 
same hole, in which they had long before reared their 
young. Their mutual attachment is, he believes, 
continued throughout life. 
This species is twenty inches long and thirty inches 
in extent. 
TheEed-head AYoodpecker {Picus erytliroceplialus) is 
also a native of America. It is active and lively, 
migratory in its habits, and beautiful in its general 
appearance. In winter it retires southward, though 
iudividuals are sometimes found throughout that 
season in Carolina, as also in the States of Pennsyl- 
vania and New York. In the forests - and woodlands 
this species is abundant in summer, and it ventures 
near towns, without much apparent apprehension of 
man, though somewhat suspicious of his intentions 
when he approaches them, as Audubon relates. He 
says, that “when” they are “alighted on a fence- 
stake by the road or in a field, and one approaches 
them, they graduallj^nove sideways out of sight, peeping 
now and then to discover your intention ; and when 
you are quite close and opposite, lie still until you are 
