Merriam on Birds of Leiois County , New York 127 
Samuel Calvin * * * § and others.f In Humboldt County, Iowa, they must 
be badly demoralized, for Mr. Charles Aldrich states that there they some- 
times amuse themselves by braining young poultry. He says : “ On 
watching carefully to ascertain the cause, a Red-headed Woodpecker ( Mela - 
nerpes erythrocephalus) was caught in the act. He killed the tender 
duckling with a single blow on the head, and then pecked out and ate the 
brains ! ” % 
In the last number of the Bulletin Mr. H. B. Bailey published a letter, 
relative to the food of this species, from Mr. G. S. Agersborg, of Vermilion, 
Dakota Ter., which is of such unusual interest that I take the liberty of 
reproducing part of it here : “ Last spring, in opening a good many birds of 
this species with the object of ascertaining their principal food, I found in 
their stomachs nothing but young grasshoppers. One of them, which had 
its headquarters near my house, was observed making frequent visits to an 
old oak post, and on examining it I found a large crack where the Wood- 
pecker had inserted about one hundred grasshoppers of all sizes (for future 
use, as later observations proved), which were put in without killing them, 
but they were so firmly wedged in the crack that they in vain tried to get 
free. I told this to a couple of farmers, and found that they had also seen 
the same thing, and showed me the posts which were used for the same 
purpose.” § 
Gentry says that in Union and Northumberland counties, in Pennsyl- 
vania, “ no later than the 10th of August,” he has “ seen immense flocks, 
numbering hundreds, in orchards, gleaning among the trunks and branches 
of apple-trees, for the insects which lurk in their creviced bark. So. tame 
and confiding were they that it was possible to approach within a few 
paces of them without exciting suspicion or creating alarm.” || Not being 
a migratory species with us, in Northern New York (unless forced to leave 
by scarcity of food), they are never met with in large flocks, and their 
wariness depends, of course, upon the amount of persecution to which they 
are subjected. Well do I remember a winter, about twelve years ago, when 
in Coe’s woods ' Mr. Bagg and I used to hunt them on snow-shoes with 
bow and arrow. Then they would often alight close to us, and occasion- 
ally paid dearly for their audacity. 
During the summer and early autumn they are generally more easily 
approached than when in winter-quarters. 
Yesterday (May 29), while passing a dead stub, I noticed a Red-headed 
* American Naturalist, Vol. XI, No. 8, p. 471, August, 1878. 
+ Harper’s Magazine, and Forest and Stream, Vol. IX, No. 24, p. 451, Jan. 
17, 1878. 
+ American Naturalist, Vol. XI, No. 5, p. 308, May, 1877. 
§ Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, Vol. Ill, No. 2, p. 97, April, 1878. 
|| Thos. G. Gentry. Life Histories of the Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania, 
Vol. II, p. 148, 1877. 
