174 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
breeds. It is not often seen away from heavy timber, and is generally 
to be found in the very tops of the tallest forest trees. I have never 
secured any of their eggs, but my note book says that I found a pair 
nesting March 25, 1883, near the top of a large white-oak in edge of 
wood two miles from Washington. The birds were quite noisy, and 
while I watched them with my field glass I saw them running in and 
out of a nice new clean-cut hole in the live wood of the oak. The eggs 
were probably not laid at that date, but about the nesting there could 
be no doubt. I intended trying to secure the eggs, but bad weather 
and other circumstances prevented till the matter was overlooked. I 
also remember several years ago visiting a farmer friend whom I found 
engaged in shooting woodpeckers off a mulberry tree that stood in his 
yard and was full of ripe fruit. He had a dozen or more of the birds 
lying in a pile under the tree, and at least four or five of them were Red- 
bellies and the balance Red-heads. I saw and heard three of this species 
the last day I was in the woods (June 2). I can recognize their ‘chuck’ 
as far as I can hear it. 5 ’ 
The following list made up from reports—seventy odd in number— 
received from observers throughout the state, shows that M. carolinus 
has been observed as a breeder only in Washington county; and as a 
migTant it has been reported by but few persons: 
County. 
Observers. 
Remarks. 
Bradford. 
Migrant: rare. 
Clinton. 
Dr. W. Van Fleet. 
Migrant; rare. 
Chester. 
B. H. Warren, . 
Have taken three in ten years ; all in winter. 
Delaware. 
B. H. Warren. 
Two killed in winter. 
Erie. 
Geo. B. Sennett. 
Winter. 
*Lancaster. 
Dr. A. C. Treickler, 
Winter. 
Lackawanna,. 
Geo. P. Friant. 
Winter; very rare. 
Luzerne. 
Dr. W. L. Hartman. 
Rare visitor ; probably breeds. 
Montgomery. 
Thos. 8. Gillin. 
Migrant. 
Northampton,. 
Dr. John W. Detwiller. 
Migrant. 
Perry. 
H. J. Roddy,. 
Migrant. 
Washington, . 
M. Compton. 
Resident; breeds. 
Do. . 
W. T. Warrick. 
Resident ; breeds. 
Do. . 
Jas. S. Nease. 
Resident; breeds. 
Westmoreland. 
Chas. H. Townsend. 
Rather common. 
York. 
Gerard C. Brown. 
Migrant; probably breeds occasionally. 
The stomach contents of three of these birds, captured during the 
winter months in Chester and Delaware counties, Pa., consisted of black 
beetles, larva?, fragments of acorns, and a few seeds of wild grapes. 
In various sections of Florida where the Red-bellied Woodpeckers are 
exceedingly numerous; in fact, by odds, the most abundant of all the 
woodpeckers, the common names of “ Orange Sapsucker ” and “Orange- 
borer ” are universally applied to them. On making inquiry of farmers 
and others, I learned that the names were given because these wood¬ 
peckers “ sucked the sap ” of orange trees and fed on oranges. Sup¬ 
posing these statements were wrongfully made, I, at first, gave but little 
attention to them. When, however, I visited Welaka, Palatka, Volusia, 
* Some fifteen or twenty years ago. according to the late Judge Libhart. this species bred in Lancaster 
county.— B. H. Warren. 
