144 RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.
All Woodpeckers are extremely expert at discovering insects as they
lie under the bark of trees. No sooner have they alighted, than they
stand for a few moments motionless and listening. If no motion is observed
in the bark, the Woodpecker gives a smart rap with its bill, and
bending its neck sidewise lays its head close to it, when the least crawling
motion of a beetle or even a larva is instantly discovered, and the bird
forthwith attacks the tree, removes the bark, and continues to dig until it
reaches its prey, when it secures and swallows it. This manner of obtaining
food is observed particularly during the winter, when few forest fruits
are to be found. Should they, at this season, discover a vine loaded with
grapes, they are seen hanging to the branches by their feet, and helping
themselves with their bill. At this time they also resort to the corn-cribs,
and feed on the corn gathered and laid up by the farmers.
In Louisiana and Kentucky, the Red-headed Woodpecker rears two
broods each year; in the Middle Districts more usually only one. The
female lays from two to six eggs, which are pure white and translucent,
sometimes in holes not more than six feet from the ground, at other times
as high as possible. The young birds have at first the upper part of the
head grey ; but towards autumn the red begins to appear. During the
first winter, the red is seen richly intermixed with the grey feathers, and,
at the approach of spring, scarcely any difference is perceptible between
the sexes.
The Red-headed Woodpecker is found in all parts of the United
States. Its flesh is tough, and smells strongly of ants and other insects,
so as to be scarcely eatable.
A European friend of mine, on seeing some of these birds for the first
time, as he was crossing the Alleghanies, wrote me, on reaching Pittsburg,
that he had met with a beautiful species of Jay, the plumage of which
was red, black and white, and its manners so gentle, that it suffered him
to approach so near as the foot of a low tree on which it was.
On being wounded in the wing, they cry as they fall, and continue
to do so for many minutes after being taken, pecking at their foe with
great vigour. If not picked up, they make to the nearest tree, and are
soon out of reach, as they can climb by leaps of considerable length faster
than can be imagined. The number of insects of all sorts destroyed by
this bird alone is incalculable, and it thus affords to the husbandman a
full return for the mischief which it commits in his garden and fields.
In Kentucky and the Southern States, many of these birds are killed
2
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 145
in the following manner. As soon as the Red-heads have begun to visit
a Cherry or Apple tree, a pole is placed along the trunk of the tree, passing
up amongst the central branches, and extending six or seven feet beyond
the highest twigs. The Woodpeckers alight by preference on the
pole, and while their body is close to it, a man standing at the foot of the
pole gives it a smart blow with the head of an axe, on the opposite side
to that on which the Wroodpecker is, when, in consequence of the sudden
and violent vibration produced in the upper part, the bird is thrown off
dead.
P i c u s ERYTHROCEPHALUS, Ltnn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 1/4—Lath. Ind. Ornith.
vol. i. p. 227.— Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of t h e United States, p. 45.
HED-HEADED WOODPECKER, PICUS ERYTHROCEPHALUS, Wilson, Amer. Ornith.
vol. i. p. 142. PI. ix. fig. i.—Lath. Synops. vol. ii. p. 501.
Adult Male. Plate XXVII. Fig. 1.
Bill longish, straight, strong, compressed toward the tip, which is
vertically acute; upper mandible with the dorsal outline nearly straight,
the edges acute and overlapping; under mandible with acute, slightly
inflected edges. Nostrils basal, elliptical, direct, open. Head rather
large ; neck short; body robust. Feet short; tarsus and toes scutellate;
two toes before and two behind, the inner hind toe shortest; claws strong,
arched, acute.
Plumage glossy, generally blended, on the back and wings compact.
Wings longish, third and fourth quills longest. Tail much rounded, of
twelve decurved stiff feathers, worn by rubbing to an acute, ragged point.
Palpebral region bare.
Bill light blue, dark at the tip. Feet of the same colour. Iris dar/c
hazel, palpebral region bluish. Head and neck bright crimson. Back
wing-coverts, primaries and tail-feathers black, with blue reflections ;
rump and secondaries white, the shafts of the latter black. Breast and
abdomen white, tinged with yellowish-brown; an irregular transverse
narrow band of black at the junction of the red of the fore-neck and the
white of the breast.
Length 9 inches, extent of wings 17; bill along the ridge 1, along
the gap 1 \ ; tarsus 1.
Adult Female. Plate XXVII. Fig. 2.
K