152 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



breast, lining of the wings and the base of the larger wing feathers, white 

 more or less tinged with yellowish. Male: Entire upper part of the head, 

 including the pointed occipital crest and the " mustaches," bright red. 

 Female and young have only the rear portion of the head red, the frontlet 

 and the mustaches being blackish. 



Length 1 8-19.5 inches; extent 29-30.5; wing 9-10; tail 7-7.5; bill 

 2.25-2.65. 



Distribution. The Northern pileated woodpecker is found throughout 

 the forested regions of North America from northeastern British Columbia, 

 southern Mackenzie, central Quebec and Newfoundland, southward along 

 the mountain ranges as far as New Mexico and Carolina. 



In New York it was formerly rather generally distributed throughout 

 the State, but at the present time it is almost entirely confined to the 

 evergreen forests of the Adirondacks and Catskills. A few are still found 

 in the highlands along the Pennsylvania border and in various localities 

 throughout central and western New York where there are mixed forests 

 of unusual extent. During 25 years at Springville in southern Erie county, 

 I have met with only 4 specimens of this bird. Mr Savage and Mr Reinecke 

 of Buffalo have had a similar experience with it in Erie, Chautauqua and 

 Cattaraugus counties. Mr Higgins reports that it still breeds in the 

 wilder portions of Cortland county and there seems to be some evidence 

 that it is tending to reestablish itself in various localities where it had 

 disappeared for many years. It is by no means common in the Adiron- 

 dacks or the Catskills, but every day's journey of 10 to 15 miles through 

 the Adirondack wilderness will almost surely bring one past the native 

 haunts of one or more pairs of these birds. More than any of our native 

 species, with the possible exception of the Spruce grouse and some of the 

 larger hawks, this bird disappears with the destruction of the forests, and it 

 probably will never be reestablished in the State except in the larger ever- 

 green forests of the Canadian zone. It is a strictly resident species, no 

 north and south migration being manifest, but, like all species of wood- 

 peckers, it wanders about more or less in the fall and winter in search of 

 favorable food supply. 



