3()0 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



In a recent bulletin entitled Woodpeckers in Relation to Trees and Wood 

 Products (Bull. 39, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, 1911), W. 

 L. McAtee devotes much space to the Sapsucker, and shows pretty con- 

 clusively that this bird, on the whole, does far more harm than good. Not 

 only does it kill valuable trees outright but its attacks cause distortion 

 of the trees themselves and irregularities in the woody layers, while the 

 punctures made for cambium and sap let in water, fungus germs, bacteria, 

 etc., which often result in serious damage to the timber. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Forehead, crown, chin and throat bright crimson, side of^head with two 

 white stripes and three black ones, the lowermost black one bordering the red throat and 

 running into the conspicuous velvet black patch on the vipper breast; rest of under parts pale 

 yellow or yellowish white, the sides and flanks spotted, streaked or barred with blackish; 

 upper parts mixed black and white, the rump and upper tail-coverts nearly white; wings 

 spotted with black and white and a conspicuous broad white stripe on the greater coverts, 

 forming a good field-mark; two middle tail-feathers mostly white on inner webs; outer tail- 

 feathers with only narrow white edgings or small spots near tips; bill bluish black; nasal 

 tufts white; iris brown. 



Adult female: Similar to male, but the red of chin and tlu-oat replaced by pure white, 

 and the red of crown often mixed with gray or brown. Young birds of either sex usually 

 lack all red, or have only a few scattered red feathers on the crown, while the under parts 

 are more streaked and mottled, the black chest patch sometimes quite indistinct; the 

 species may always be recognized, however, by the white wing-patch and white-marked 

 middle tail-feathers, aside from the yellowish belly. 



An interesting abnormality is noted occasionally in birds which seem otherwise adult. 

 It consists in the replacement of the red crown by glossy black, so that the entire top of 

 the head is clear black, with perhaps a few minute flecks of white or a tinge of red on the 

 forehead. The writer has seen four or five such specimens, all females, and P. A. Tav- 

 erner, of Detroit, has taken one or two. 



Length 7.75 to 8.75 inches; wing 4.80 to 5; tail 2.90 to 3.20; culmen 1 to 1.08. 



169. Log-cock. Phloeotomus pileatus abieticola (Bangs). (405a) 



Synonyms: Pileated Woodpecker, Northern Pileated Woodpecker, Great Black Wood- 

 pecker, Cock of the Woods, Wood Cock, Wood Hen. — Ceophloeus pileatus abieticola. 

 Bangs, 1898. — Picus pileatus, Linn., 1766, Wils., 1811, Aud., 1834. — Dryocopus pileatus, 

 Bonap., 1838. — Hylotomus pileatus, Baird, 1858, and many sub.sequent authors. — 

 Ceophloeus pileatus, Cab., 1862, A. O. U. Check-list, 1889, 1895. 



Plate XXXVI. 



Known at once by its large size (scarcely less than the Crow) and pre- 

 vailing brownish black plumage with conspicuous red cap. The largest 

 by far of our woodpeckers. 



Distribution. — Forests of the northern United States and northward to 

 about 63°. Toward the south it intergrades with Ceophloeus pileatus 

 pileatus, but as yet the limits of the two species have not been definitely 

 mapped. Resident and nesting (?) wherever found. 



This, the largest of our woodpeckers, was formerly an abundant bird 

 throughout the state, but with the deforesting of the country it has become 

 more and more rare until at the present time it is seldom seen in the southern 

 half of the Lower Peninsula and probably is nowhere as abundant as it was 

 twenty years ago. Nevertheless, it is far from rare in the wilder parts of 

 the Lower Peninsula, and is fairly common in many districts in the Upper 

 Peninsula. 



Among the lumbermen of the north it is commonly known as the " Wood 



