142 RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.
opposite, lie still until you are past, when they hop to the top of the
stake, and rattle upon it with their bill, as if to congratulate themselves
on the success of their cunning. Should you approach within arm's length,
which may frequently be done, the Woodpecker flies to the next stake or
the second from you, bends his head to peep, and rattles again, as if to
provoke you to a continuance of what seems to him excellent sport. He
alights on the roof of the house, hops along it, beats the shingles, utters a
cry, and dives into your garden to pick the finest strawberries which he
can discover.
I would not recommend to any one to trust their fruit to the Redheads
; for they not only feed on all kinds as they ripen, but destroy an
immense quantity besides. No sooner are the cherries seen to redden,
than these birds attack them. They arrive on all sides, coming from
a distance of miles, and seem the while to care little about the satisfaction
you might feel in eating some also. Trees of this kind are stripped clean
by them. When one has alighted and tasted the first cherry, he utters
his call-note, jerks his tail, nods his head, and at it again in an instant.
When fatigued, he loads his bill with one or two, and away to his nest,
to supply his young.
It is impossible to form any estimate of the number of these birds seen
in the United States during the summer months; but this much I may
safely assert, that an hundred have been shot upon a single cherry-tree in
one day. Pears, Peaches, Apples, Figs, Mulberries, and even Pease, are
thus attacked. I am not disposed to add to these depredations those
which they commit upon the Corn, either when young and juicy, or when
approaching maturity, lest I should seem too anxious to heap accusations
upon individuals, who, although culprits, are possessed of many undeniably
valuable qualities.
But to return:—They feed on apples as well as on other fruit, and
carry them off by thrusting into them their sharp bills when open, with
all their force, when they fly away to a fence-stake or a tree, and devour
them at leisure. They have another bad habit, which is that of sucking
the eggs of small birds. For this purpose, they frequently try to enter
the boxes of the Martins or Blue-birds, as well as the pigeon-houses, and
are often successful. The corn, as it ripens, is laid bare by their bill,
when they feed on the top parts of the ear, and leave the rest either to the
Grakles or the Squirrels, or still worse, to decay, after a shower has fallen
upon it.
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 14:5
All this while the Red-heads are full of gaiety. No sooner have they
satisfied their hunger, than small parties of them assemble on the tops and
branches of decayed trees, from which they chase different insects that are
passing through the air, launching after them for eight or ten yards, at
times performing the most singular manoeuvres, and, on securing their victim,
return to the tree, where, immediately after, a continued cry of exultation
is uttered. They chase each other on wing in a very amicable manner,
in long, beautifully curved sweeps, during which the remarkable variety of
their plumage becomes conspicuous, and is highly pleasing to the eye.
When passing from one tree to another, their flight resembles the motion
of a great swing, and is performed by a single opening of the wings, descending
at first, and rising towards the spot on which they are going to
alight with ease, and in the most graceful manner. They move upwards,
sidewise, or backwards, without apparent effort, but seldom with the head
downwards, as Nuthatches and some smaller species of Woodpeckers arcwont
to do.
Their curving from one tree to another, in the manner just described,
is frequently performed as if they intended to attack a bird of their own species;
and it is amusing to see the activity with which the latter baffles his antagonist,
as he scrambles sidewise round the tree with astonishing celerity, in
the same manner in which one of these birds, suspecting a man armed with
a gun, will keep winding round the trunk of a tree, until a good opportunity
presents itself of sailing off to another. In this manner a man may
follow from one tree to another over a whole field, without procuring a
shot, unless he watches his opportunity and fires while the bird is on wing.
On the ground, this species is by no means awkward, as it hops there with
ease, and secures beetles which it had espied whilst on the fence or a tree.
I t is seldom that a nest newly perforated by these birds is to be found,
as they generally resort to those of preceding years, contenting themselves
with working them a little deeper. These holes are found not only in
every decaying tree, but often to the number of ten or a dozen in a single
trunk, some just begun, others far advanced, and others ready to receive
the eggs. The great number of these holes, thus left in different stages,
depends upon the difficulties which the bird may experience in finishing
them; for whenever it finds the wood hard and difficult to be bored, it
tries another spot. So few green or living trees are perforated by this
species, that I cannot at the present moment recollect having seen a single
instance of such an occurrence.