The Pileaied Woodpecker 59 



special dcliffht, he drives holes to the very heart of growing forest trees, tapping 

 the central chamber of the colony, where, in winter, he finds the dormant swarm 

 unable to move and feasts upon them at leisure. This habit of riddling trees has 

 caused the inobservant to condemn him for a timber destroyer; which is as great 

 a mistake as to conclude that all Woodpeckers are Sapsuckers because one had 

 the habit of puncturing the bark and drinking sap. A tree containing an ant 

 colony is abcady doomed. And the Log-cock makes no mistakes, though man 

 might find no outward sign of an ant-tree. Doubtless that strong formic smell, 

 coupled with his experience in sounding tree trunks, — as a man tells a ripe 

 watermelon by the plunk of it, — enables him not only to find the tree, but, what 

 is more remarkaljle, to drive his hole with such j)recision that he taps the heart 

 of the ct)mmunity. 



This illustration of a maple tree, a fool in diameter, will give some idea of 

 such excavations as this feathered wood-cutter will make in order to indulge his 

 fondness for ants. The largest of the four holes was 7 inches long, 2f inches wide, 

 and 7 inches deep. The next in size was 6f inches long, 2^ inches wide and 7 

 inches deep. All four holes passed through 3 to 5 inches of sound wood each. 

 If any man were given a small gouge or chisel and a light mallet, and forced to 

 cut such a series of holes, he would rightly feel that he had quite a task before 

 him. But here was a bird doing the work with no tools but his beak. 



These holes also record the retreat of the surviving ants upward in the tree, 

 or its occupancy by another swarm. The involution of new bark, clearly shown 

 in the illustration, about the two lower holes proves that they were made the winter 

 previous, w^hile the upper two were excavated late the following summer or after 

 the spring growth. Two more holes on the south side of the tree, which do not 

 show in the illustration, the lower of which is eight and one-half inches above the 

 highest hole shown on the east side, were made the following autumn. Hence 

 it would appear that each time of revisitation Hylotomus (or CeopJilceus, as we 

 now call him) found that the survivors had retreated a little higher, and followed 

 them up. Thus, in a way like a landlord, he goes his rounds and collects his rent. 

 This illustration of the Log-cock's work is not a show specimen; numbers can 

 be found in his range to equal or surpass it. We have seen sugar-maple, soft 

 sugars, basswood or linden, wild cherry and various species of ash, operated 

 upon in this way by the Pileated Woodpecker. 





