136 



The Pileated Woodpecker-. 



young have attained a part of their growth, 

 they often clamber to the mouth of the hole 

 and may be seen looking out. 



Even before they have left the nest the 

 young seem to share the wildness of their 

 parents. Mr. Bachman, writing of some 

 that he took from a nest when very young 

 and tried to rear in confinement, says: 

 " They were sullen and cross, nay, three 

 died in a few days, but the others having 

 been fed on grasshoppers forcibly intro- 

 duced into their mouths, were raised. In 

 a short time they began picking up the 

 grasshoppers thrown into their cage, and 

 were fully fed with corn meal, which they 

 preferred eating dry. Their whole em- 

 ployment consisted in attempting to escape 

 from their prison, regularly demolishing 

 one every two days, although made of pine 

 boards of tolerable thickness. I at last 

 had one constructed with oak boards at the 

 back and sides, and rails of the same in 

 front. This was too much for them, and 

 their only comfort was in passing and hold- 

 ing their bills through the hard bars. In 

 the morning after receiving water, which 

 they drank freely, they invariably upset the 

 cup or saucer, and although this was large 

 and flatfish, they regularly turned it quite 

 over. After this they attacked the trough 

 which contained their food and soon broke 

 it to pieces, and when perchance I hap- 

 pened to approach them with my hand, 

 they made passes at it with their powerful 

 bills with great force. I kept them in this 

 manner until winter. They were at all 

 times uncleanly and unsociable birds. On 

 opening the door of my study one morning 

 one of them dashed off by me, alighted on 

 an apple tree near the house, climbed some 

 distance, and kept watching me from one 

 side and then the other, as if to ask what 

 my intentions were. I walked into my 

 study; the other was hammering at my 

 books. They had broken one of the bars 

 of the cage and must have been at liberty 

 for some hours judging by the mischief 



they had done. Fatigued of my pets I 

 opened the door, and this last one hearing 

 the voice of his brother, flew toward him 

 and alighted on the same tree. They re- 

 mained about half an hour, as if consult- 

 ing each other, after which, taking to their 

 wings together, they flew off in a southern 

 direction, and with much more ease than 

 could have been expected from birds so 

 long kept in captivity." 



The food of this species consists very 

 largely of insects of various kinds, which 

 it digs out with its powerful bill from their 

 lurking places in the dead wood or beneath 

 the bark of trees. It also eats fruit of all 

 kinds, chestnuts, acorns and Indian corn. 

 It is charged that it also destroys the ears 

 of corn while yet in the milk, but there can 

 be no doubt that its services to man in the 

 destruction of noxious insects far outweigh 

 any slight depredations which it may make 

 on the crops. It is valueless for food, and is 

 never killed except in pure wantonness, or 

 by ornithologists. 



The Pileated Woodpecker is eighteen 

 inches in length, and measures twenty-eight 

 across its extended wings. Its general color 

 is deep glossy black in the male, but dull and 

 smoky in the female and young. The 

 whole upper part of the head is a bright 

 carmine red. A broad band of black runs 

 through the eye, becoming narrow on the 

 forehead. There is a narrow line of white 

 between this band of black and the red of 

 the upper head. Throat white. Another 

 band, yellowish at the base of the bill, and 

 then changing to white, runs down through 

 the cheek meeting the white of throat, and 

 continues alongside of neck to the sides 

 under the wing. Another broad band of 

 red runs back from base of lower mandible. 

 Under side of wing more or less white. 

 The legs and feet are blue. Iris yellow. 

 The female differs but little from the male, 

 but has the band running back from the 

 lower mandible, which is red in the male, 

 o^rayish brown in color. 



