74 BULLETIN" 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the gum exude. But like the Pileated Woodpecker, it is much attached to the 

 tree in which it has first made its nest, and as long as it can find a suitable 

 spot it will continue to excavate new holes until the tree is killed by this process 

 of boring. I have frequently counted as many as four holes in one tree, and 

 in two instances I have seen as many as eight. These birds seem to know by 

 instinct that the center of the tree is rotten, or what lumber men call "black- 

 heart," and they never make a mistake when selecliiig a tree ! The hole is bored 

 through the solid wood, generally a little iipward, and to the center of the tree 

 (which is always rotten). 



The overwhelming majority of observers who have studied the red- 

 cockaded woodpecker in its normal habitat concur in the opinion 

 that the site of selection for the nest hole is in a living pine that, 

 however, has begun to rot at the core, and this condition of the heart 

 of the tree the birds seem to be able to discern with unfailing ac- 

 curacy. All the nests I have seen and studied were in living pines, 

 and other ornithologists have made similar observations. T. Gilbert 

 Pearson (1909) says: ''So far as I have observed, always excavated 

 in the trunk of a living pine tree. The site chosen varies from 

 twenty-five to fifty feet from the earth." H, L. Harllee (MS.), of 

 Florence, S. C, writes: "It nests in the same hole each year in close' 

 proximity to several pairs, usually from two to four." The observa- 

 tions of Gilbert R. Rossignol (MS.), writing from Savannah, Ga., 

 agree with the foregoing. He states: "Before the lumberman in- 

 vaded our great pine forests, the red-cockaded was fairly common, 

 for I have found 10 or 12 pairs nesting in a 50-acre tract, provided, 

 of course, that the pine trees were not too close to one another. These 

 little woodpeckers did not like dark heavily timbered forests. The 

 bird drills a hole in a living pine ranging from 25 to 80 or more 

 feet high, and it is almost impossible to get the eggs without full 

 equipment. It takes a brace and bit to bore holes a little above where 

 you think the bottom of the nest is located, and then sometimes you 

 strike below it, or again right into it on an incomplete set or no eggs 

 at all. The eggs I have found were always more or less sticky with 

 pine gum. This bird will nest in the same hole for several years 

 and use the same tree probably during its entire life, but if the tree 

 dies, or the gum does not flow freely, the birds will desert their old 

 home." Henry Nehrling (1882), writing from Texas, states that "it 

 usually excavates its nesting sites in deciduous trees," and E. A. 

 Mcllhenny (Bendire, 1895) that "in southern Louisiana it generally 

 nests in willow and china trees." The nesting hole is bored usually 

 slightly upward for several inches then straight through into' the 

 softer unsound heart of the tree and downward for 8 inches to a 

 foot or more. The nest cavity is gourd-shaped, and the eggs are 

 laid upon fine chips and debris in the bottom of the cavity. The 

 most striking thing about the nesting site, however, is due to the 

 bird's custom of drillino- numerous small holes throujrh the bark of 



