NORTHERN PILEATED WOODPECKER 219 



The term Red-headed Woodpecker is commonly misap- 

 plied to various Woodpeckers ; the Flicker, the male 

 Downy, and the Hairy, all have a red patch on the back of 

 the head, while the Sapsucker either has the crown red, or 

 both the crown and throat red. In the adult Red-headed 

 Woodpecker, however, not only the whole head and throat 

 are red, but the upper breast as well. When it flies, it 

 shows a striking contrast of wdiite with glossy black. 



KORTHERX PiLEATED WoODPECKER. CeopMoBUS pUeatUS 



abieticola 

 17.00 



Ad. $ . — Entire plumag-e apparently black; throat, two stripes 

 on side of head, one on side of neck, and a bar on the wing, 

 white; ivhole top of head bright scarlet, the feathers forming a 

 crest; stripe along the cheek red. Ad. 9. — Similar, but only 

 the crest scarlet. 



Nest, in a hole in a tree. Eggs, white. 



The Pileated Woodpecker, Logcock, or Woodcock, as 

 the lumbermen call it, is a permanent resident of those por- 

 tions of northern New York and Xew England that are still 

 heavily forested ; elsewhere in ISTew York and New England 

 it is a rare straggler. It is a mighty hewer of wood, leaving 

 signs of its activity in nearly every decaying tree and on many 

 sound ones in its neighborhood. Where it digs for grubs, it 

 cuts out great square mortise-like holes, different from the 

 round nesting-holes of woodpeckers in general. These 

 holes often run deep into the tree, or run into each other 

 up and down the trunk. The noise of its hammering 

 resounds through the woods like the blows of a woodman's 

 axe. Its call, or cackling, frequent in spring, suggests that 

 of the Flicker, but is wilder and louder. 



Its flight is undulating, and this, with the white patch 

 and scarlet crest, will easily identify it when flying ; when 

 against the trunk of a tree it is, of course, unmistakable. 



