174 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Migration. — Generally speaking, the species is resident wherever 

 found. Some of the earlier naturalists supposed that it retired in 

 winter from the more northerly portions of its range; but none af- 

 fords any evidence. George Miksch Sutton (1930), when ornithol- 

 ogist for the Game Commission of Pennsylvania, having reviewed 

 the reports of the wardens, said that they tended to indicate a grad- 

 ual movement of the birds in winter around the eastern end of Lake 

 Erie and southward into Pennsylvania. Such may be the case. On 

 the other hand, it is true that, after the nesting season has passed, 

 and throughout fall and winter, the birds wander and appear in 

 areas where at other seasons they are unknown ; and it may be that 

 Dr. Sutton's wardens were basing their reports upon such seasonal 

 i-eappearances. More precise observations must be made before it 

 can be asserted with confidence that there is migration in any sense 

 other than that here recognized. 



Courtship. — It is usual to find the birds associated in pairs, even 

 after the nesting season has passed; and from this the inference 

 has been drawn (Morrell, 1901; Knight, 1908) that they continue, 

 year after year, constantly mated. Lewis O. Shelley, writing from 

 East Westmoreland, N. H., says (MS.) : "It is my belief that the 

 pileated mates for life, for, seen almost daily, one pair is known to 

 have shown no active spring display for the past few years, nor was 

 a third bird (male) seen near." This inference may be sound; never- 

 theless, an element of conjecture here should not be overlooked, and 

 further data should be sought. 



In some cases, certainly, the birds engage in mating antics, and 

 Edmund W. Arthur (1934) relates an example: 



On April 14, 1933, while driving with a companion * * * from Slippery- 

 Rock [Pennsylvania] * * * j-q Grove City, I observed a Pileated Wood- 

 pecker * * * flying across the highway a short distance south of Bar more 

 Run. Stopping our car, we got out and followed the bird with our eyes, until 

 it alighted on a tall tree a thousand feet away in the swampy woodland. 

 Presently another, and then a third, were seen. They were quite restless, 

 though apparently fearless, as evidenced by their flying about, alighting in 

 plain view of us upon trees not fifty yards distant. After several minutes 

 one of them — a female we thought — alighted upon a grassy knoll in a pasture 

 to the left of the road, where it walked about for a brief interval, until a 

 second came to the knoll and approached within three or four feet of the 

 first. Then began a curious movement, much resembling the dance of Flickers, 

 wherein with bowing and scraping one bird, stepping sideways, made a circle 

 about the other, who slowly turned, facing the performer. When the dance 

 ceased there was a sudden jerky movement on the part of each, and thereupon 

 they flew away. There are two houses at the intersection, and the people 

 living in one of them told us that a pair of these birds had nested the year 

 before in a maple just in the rear of their house. 



Francis H. Allen has written a description of a formal dance at 

 a season remote from mating time; and, since the description has 



