BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



225 



Mr. J. A. Farley tells me that Dr. F. H. Mosher saw one in July, 1899, in 

 Georgetown. There is a specimen in the Peabody Academy collection, labeled 

 August 9th. Mr. W. A. Jeffries tells me that he has found them at times in 

 numbers during the autumn migrations in Swampscott. Thus, on October 2d, 

 1876, he found " a small flock " in an orchard and he shot four. I have never 

 found more than one or two at a time. One fluttered against one of Thatcher's 

 Island Lights, on September 28th, 1903, and was caught alive. Their bands of 

 holes are to be commonly seen on apple trees. 



177 [405a] Ceophlceus pileatus abieticola Bangs. 

 Northern Pileated Woodpecker. 



Accidental visitor. 



My only reason for not placing this bird on the extirpated list is the 

 following from Howe and Allen's list ^ : " Having been noted at Manchester in 

 December, 1885." These gentlemen have unfortunately lost the original note 

 and are imable to give me any particulars. 



It is a bird of uninhabited forest regions and even in the early part of the 

 nineteenth century, Nuttall- said: "He is unknown, at this time, in all the 

 maritime parts of the populous and long settled state of Massachusetts." 



Dr. J. A. Allen ^ says: "That the Pileated Woodpecker .... was once a 

 common inhabitant of all the primitive forests of this Slate seems to be unques- 

 tionable, though absolute proof of the fact may not be available. It still occurs 

 in abundance throughout the older States, wherever the forests remain compara- 

 tively undisturbed, while it is well known to retire quickly when its haunts are 

 invaded by the destroying axe of the woodsman." 



178 [406] Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Linn.). 

 Red-headed Woodpecker. 

 Very rare and irregular visitor. 



1 R H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen : The Birds of Ma.ssachusetts, p. 77, igoi. 



2 Thomas Nuttall: A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada, vol. i, p. 

 568, 1832. 



'J. A. Allen: Bull. Nuttall Orn, Club, vol. i, p. 55, 1876. 



