348 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 



common in Carroll County. An adult female shot, December 15, 18S4, from 

 an apple tree in my garden at Camden. It was feeding on a frozen apple. 

 A very heavy snow had fallen the previous night, but the day was not cold. 

 A month later, January 11, an adult male was shot from a wild cherry tree 

 in the hen lot on the homo farm near Burlington. On April 4, I saw a male 

 at Camden ; and on April l(i. I saw a male near my house in Camden. 



100. Piii.(KOTOMis PiLEATrs I'lLKATis (Liiimeus). 



PILEATED WOODPECKER. (405) 



Formerly a not uncommon permanent resident, but now very rare. Until 

 destroyed in the Normal School fire of March 8, 1888, Mrs. Evermann and 

 I had in our collection three specimens of this fine species, — one taken in 

 the fall of 1885, on Beanblossom Creek near Bloomington, Indiana, (where 

 another was taken at the same time), one (an adult male) taken near Met- 

 amora, Greene County, by our friend Edwin Corr who brought it to us in the 

 flesh Christmas day, 1885; and a third (a male) taken November 5, 188G, in 

 the heavy woods near Coal Creek north of Terre Haute. 



When I was a small boy I often saw these big Black Log-cocks, as we 

 called them, on my father's tarin near r.urlington. They could be heard 

 oftener than seen, their loud sonorous tatoo coming from out the dense 

 forest, which, to us small boys, seemed very somber and full of many sorts 

 of strange and dangerous animals. ()n(> might sometimes surprise one of 

 these big birds beating his tatoo on the dead top of some old elm, maple 

 or oak, and then ^ee it fly away with a wild, frightened call. 



Sometimes these birds would come about the fields and pastures if there 

 were any old dead trees, snags or stumps in them. I remember quite dis- 

 tinctly seeing one on a large and tall rotten stump within a few rods of our 

 house, many years ago, perhaps in tbe early sixties. It was industriously 

 hunting for grubs in the rotten wood. I had learned that yellowhammers 

 and other woodpeckers could sometimes be killed or capture^d by slipping 

 up upon them from the opposite side of the stump and striking arouiiu the 

 stump with a flexible brush. I tried the experiment with this Log-cock. 

 Securing a much-branched beech limb about four feet long. I stealtliily ap- 

 proached the stump. The Log-cock was so intent u]ion its quest for grubs 

 that it was oblivious to my approach. When at the stump a smart blow 

 on the side of the stump caused the flexible ends of the brush to strike the 

 bird and stun it so severely that I had no ditticulty in capturing it. 



101. Melanerpes erytiirocephauts (Linuieus). 



RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. (400) 



From my earliest recollection the Red-headed Woodpecker has been to me 

 perhaps the most familiar and best known of our native birds. In my 

 boyhood days in Carroll County, it was excessively abundant and much de- 

 tested by every farmer who had fields of corn or apples and cherries upon 

 which it might feed. And that it was very destructive to the ears of corn 

 while in the milk or roasting ear stage, can not be denied. To convince 

 one of this fact, it was only necessary to take a look at the outer rows in 

 any corn field, particularly on the side next to a woodland. In these rows 

 not an ear escaped ; every one showed the husk torn away at the distal end 

 and from three to 10 square inches of the grains eaten more or less com- 



