RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
571 
complacence, turns every insect visit to his advantage, 
and for hours together placidly reconnoitres the sur- 
rounding fields ; at times he leaves his lofty citadel to 
examine the rails of the fence, or the boards of the 
adjoining barn ; striking terror into his lurking prey by 
the stridulous tappings of his bill, he hearkens to their 
almost inaudible movements, and discovering their re- 
treat, dislodges them from their burrows, by quickly and 
dexterously chiseling out the decaying wood in which 
they are hid, and transfixing them with his sharp and 
barbed tongue. But his favorite and most productive 
resort is to the adjoining fields of dead and girdled trees ; 
amidst whose bleaching trunks, and crumbling branches, 
he long continues to find an ample repast of depredating 
and boring insects. When the cravings of appetite are 
satisfied, our busy hunter occasionally gives way to a 
frolicksome or quarrelsome disposition, and with shrill and 
lively vociferations, not unlike those of the neighbouring 
tree-frog, he pursues in a graceful curving flight his com- 
panions or rivals round the bare limbs of some dead 
tree to which they resort for combat or frolick. 
About the middle of May, in Pennsylvania, they bur- 
row out or prepare their nests in the large limbs of trees, 
adding no materials to the cavity which they smooth out 
for the purpose. As with the Blue-Bird, the same tree 
continues to be employed for several years in succession, 
and probably by the same undivided pair. The eggs, 
about 6, are said to be white, marked at the great end 
with reddish spots, in which last particular, they differ 
from all others of the genus. The first brood make their 
appearance about the 20th of June. The eggs and 
young of this, and many other birds, occasionally fall a 
prey to the attacks of the common Black Snake. 
The length of this species is about 9J to 10 inches, the alar stretch 
about 17. Bill light-blue. Legs bluish green. Iris dark-hazel. 
