58 



Bird -Lore 



does nothing by halves; his industry is intense. When he smites his chosen 

 sounding-board, the woods reverberate with the wooden music. When hewing 

 his way to a meal in the heart of a tree, the wintry silence is filled with the clatter 

 of his workshop, and the chips fl}-. 



Think of him, almost as big as a Crow, some eighteen inches long by twenty- 

 eight inches in expanse, sooty black, with white stripes flowing from cheeks down 

 neck and out into his wings, the royal head in its scarlet cap, and the male with 

 scarlet mustaches to match, and that unutterably savage orange eyel 



CHIPS FROM THE PILEATED'S WORKSHOP 

 About one-half natural size 



If a workman is known by his chips, then the Log-cock is well advertised, — 

 the scene of his operations presenting an astonishing sight for amount of debris 

 and size of the chips. Thus there was the force of real meaning in his old scien- 

 tific name, Hylotonms, derived from the Greek and meaning " wood-cutter, " for 

 he is the feathered wood-cutter par excellence to those who know his habits. In 

 proof of this, we offer a plate of his bent chips about one-half natural size. These 

 were of good, sound maple wood, showing ant holes. In striking, the Log-cock 

 employs a writing or wrenching stroke, which sends chips flying to a considerable 

 distance; some we have picked up six feet from the base of the tree. 



Like the Flicker, he is a great. lover of ants, which accordingly occupy a large 

 place in his bill-of-fare. So, to dine on the big black timber ants, which are his 



