NORTHERN PILEATED WOODPECKER 185 



may be aligned in vertical rows, and may run together in furrows 

 of several feet in length. Crumbling stumps and moss-covered 

 logs lying on the forest floor will often be found ripped and torn 

 by the woodpecker's beak. 



It is, as has been said, a wary creature, and is not easily stalked. 

 On one occasion, when I had successfully approached a male that 

 was idling in the top of a gaunt chestnut near the nesting tree, I 

 paused, before shifting from an uncomfortable position, until the 

 bird should sidle around the limb. Even so, he was quicker than I ; 

 for, before I had completed my movement, he was peering from 

 the opposite side, and, detecting me, w^as off. Again I came upon 

 a bird — a male — suddenly, in open forest. He did not immediately 

 take wing, but, hitching downward upon the tree trunk, he reached 

 the ground, hopped off, and then flitted away through the under- 

 growth, so that I scarcely saw him go. And when I came upon him 

 again he repeated the maneuver. 



With all their alertness, the birds have a large store of curiosity. 

 Dr. Sutton (1930) has remarked that some individuals will "fly 

 up hastily and boldly upon hearing a commotion in the woods." 

 They may sometimes be called up by imitating their cry, by clapping 

 together the cupped palms of one's hands, or by pounding with a 

 billet of wood upon a tree trunk. I was following one morning a 

 forest trail, where I knew a pair of the woodpeckers to be in resi- 

 dence, and had a glimpse, as I walked, of a large bird flying away. 

 There stood against the sky, in the direction of the retreat, the stub 

 of a great treetop. Pausing in my tracks, I waited until, after a 

 few minutes, the suspected woodpecker came leaping up the stub — 

 to have a look at me, as I supposed. In such case, the square 

 shoulders of the bird, the slender white-striped neck, and the hammer 

 head with its pointed scarlet crest are very conspicuous. 



Maurice Brooks (1934) has remarked upon the playfulness of the 

 birds when at ease. 



For all their alertness, it remains still to be said that on occasion, 

 when the birds are feeding, or when tending a nestful of young, 

 it is possible to approach quietly and to remain watching, while 

 they, unheeding, continue their activities. 



It is common to find hairy and downy woodpeckers associated with 

 the pileated, both on nesting grounds and when feeding. There is 

 here, I believe, some measure of commensalism. I have in mind an 

 observation upon a downy on the same dead hemlock tree with a 

 pileated woodpecker. The larger bird was scaling off the bark and 

 feeding; the smaller seemed to be gleaning over areas the pileated 

 had left. 



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