Index: lib/net/http/generic_request.rb
===================================================================
--- lib/net/http/generic_request.rb	(revision 35836)
+++ lib/net/http/generic_request.rb	(working copy)
@@ -14,6 +14,16 @@ class Net::HTTPGenericRequest
     raise ArgumentError, "no HTTP request path given" unless path
     raise ArgumentError, "HTTP request path is empty" if path.empty?
     @path = path
+
+    if @response_has_body and Net::HTTP::HAVE_ZLIB then
+      if !initheader ||
+         !initheader.keys.any? { |k| k.downcase == "accept-encoding" } then
+        initheader = initheader ? initheader.dup : {}
+        initheader["accept-encoding"] =
+          "gzip;q=1.0,deflate;q=0.6,identity;q=0.3"
+      end
+    end
+
     initialize_http_header initheader
     self['Accept'] ||= '*/*'
     self['User-Agent'] ||= 'Ruby'
Index: lib/net/http.rb
===================================================================
--- lib/net/http.rb	(revision 35836)
+++ lib/net/http.rb	(working copy)
@@ -1029,14 +1029,6 @@ module Net   #:nodoc:
     #
     def get(path, initheader = {}, dest = nil, &block) # :yield: +body_segment+
       res = nil
-      if HAVE_ZLIB
-        unless  initheader.keys.any?{|k| k.downcase == "accept-encoding"}
-          initheader = initheader.merge({
-            "accept-encoding" => "gzip;q=1.0,deflate;q=0.6,identity;q=0.3"
-          })
-          @compression = true
-        end
-      end
       request(Get.new(path, initheader)) {|r|
         if r.key?("content-encoding") and @compression
           @compression = nil # Clear it till next set.
Index: test/net/http/test_http_request.rb
===================================================================
--- test/net/http/test_http_request.rb	(revision 0)
+++ test/net/http/test_http_request.rb	(revision 0)
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+require 'net/http'
+require 'test/unit'
+require 'stringio'
+
+class HTTPRequestTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
+
+  def test_initialize_GET
+    req = Net::HTTP::Get.new '/'
+
+    assert_equal 'GET', req.method
+    refute req.request_body_permitted?
+    assert req.response_body_permitted?
+
+    expected = {
+      'accept'     => %w[*/*],
+      'user-agent' => %w[Ruby],
+    }
+
+    expected['accept-encoding'] = %w[gzip;q=1.0,deflate;q=0.6,identity;q=0.3] if
+      Net::HTTP::HAVE_ZLIB
+
+    assert_equal expected, req.to_hash
+  end
+
+  def test_initialize_HEAD
+    req = Net::HTTP::Head.new '/'
+
+    assert_equal 'HEAD', req.method
+    refute req.request_body_permitted?
+    refute req.response_body_permitted?
+
+    expected = {
+      'accept'     => %w[*/*],
+      'user-agent' => %w[Ruby],
+    }
+
+    assert_equal expected, req.to_hash
+  end
+
+end
+