RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
147 
spection in visiting their nests, — precautions not much attended 
to by them in the depth of the woods, because there the prying 
eye of man is less to be dreaded. Towards the mountains, 
particularly in the vicinity of creeks and rivers, these birds 
are extremely abundant, especially in the latter end of summer. 
Wherever you travel in the interior at that season, you hear 
them screaming from the adjoining woods, rattling on the 
dead limbs of trees, or on the fences, where they are per- 
petually seen flitting from stake to stake, on the roadside, 
before you. Wherever there is a tree, or trees, of the wild 
cherry, covered with ripe fruit, there you see them busy 
among the branches ; and, in passing orchards, you may easily 
know where to find the earliest, sweetest apples, by observing 
those trees, on or near which the Red-headed Woodpecker is 
skulking ; 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 among the ripest and best flavoured: when alarmed, 
he seizes a capital one by striking his open bill deep into it, 
and bears it off to the woods. When the Indian corn is in its 
rich, succulent, milky state, he attacks it with great eager- 
ness, opening a passage through the numerous folds of the 
husk, and feeding on it with voracity. The girdled, or 
deadened timber, so common among cornfields in the back 
settlements, are his favourite 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 frolicsome disposition ; and half a 
dozen of the fraternity are frequently seen diving and vocife- 
rating 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 difficult to distinguish the 
one from the other. 
