SOUTHERN PILEATED WOODPECKER 169 



be handled carefully, for it can inflict a painful wound with its 

 powerful beak. 



Audubon (1842) relates the following story, as told to him by the 

 Eev. John Bachman: "A pair of pileated woodpeckers had a nest 

 in an old elm tree, in a swamp, which they occupied that year; the 

 next spring early, two blue-birds took possession of it, and there 

 had young. Before these were half grown, the woodpeckers returned 

 to the place, and, despite of the cries and reiterated attacks of the 

 blue-birds, the others took the young, not very gently, as you may 

 imagine, and carried them away to some distance. Next the nest 

 itself was disposed of, the hole cleaned and enlarged, and there they 

 raised a brood. The nest, it is true, was originally their own." 



Kobert P. Allen has sent me the following note : "When in one of 

 the Carolina river swamps with Herbert L. Stoddard, early in 

 December 1936, we were interested in the actions of pileated wood- 

 peckers that we called to us by tapping on the side of our cypress 

 dug-out in imitation of the birds. We paddled our canoe close agai]\st 

 the buttress of a large cypress tree, so that we were partially con- 

 cealed by the trunk itself and by a dense growth of intertwining 

 branches overhead. As many as four pileateds at one time responded 

 to our efforts, and all these appeared to be males. As they swooped 

 low, to get a look at this stranger in their midst, each bird made 

 what we took to be an inthnidating noise with its wings. 



"From the immediate and pugnacious interest that these male (?) 

 pileateds showed in our presence, it would seem as if they had previ- 

 ously cataloged the pileated population of that area and had, there- 

 fore, rushed over to investigate the presence of a bird that could 

 not be accounted for, except as a stranger and a trespasser. Their 

 efforts at intimidation were evidently designed to drive us out of 

 the region." 



Yoice. — The most familiar note of the pileated w^oodpecker is the 

 loud, ringing call, suggesting the "yucker" call of the flicker, but 

 louder and stronger, less rapid, more prolonged, and on a lower key. 



Mr. Simmons (1925) has summed up the notes of this woodpecker 

 very well, as follows: "A loud cac^ cac, cac as it flies. A sonorous 

 cow-cow-coio, repeated many times ; a clear wichew, when two birds 

 are together. A loud cackle, like loud, ringing, derisive laughter, 

 chuch-chuck ; chuck^ chuck-ah, chuck^ chuck-ah^ chuck^ chuck^ cJiuck^ 

 chuck,' or chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuckP 



Field inarks. — The pileated woodpecker has the appearance of a 

 large, black bird, nearly as large as a crow and somewhat like it in 

 flight, but the large, white patches in the wings are distinctive, as 

 well as the flaming red crest. As it bounds through the woods in 

 long swinging flights from tree to tree, it is unmistakable. ^Vllile 



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