68 



THE OOLOGIST 



and it is quite probable that they have 

 gone the way of all worldly flesh at the 

 hands of some squirrel hunter. I talk- 

 ed with several men who roam the 

 woods during Sundays and spare time 

 and they have reported the pileated 

 woodpecker as inhabiting several of 

 the larger woods. An old man said he 

 had seen a pair about 1907 and had 

 shot one of the birds. 



I asked my friend, Mr. Guy Garrison, 

 who lives some twenty-two miles 

 southwest of Waynesburg, if he had 

 seen these large woodpeckers in that 

 region. He told me that he had at one 

 time observed five in a bunch and had 

 shot one bird. This happened in the 

 summer several years since. I re- 

 quested him to keep a close watch for 

 the birds and late in the summer of 

 1913 he reported that he had seen one 

 of them fly across a deep ravine be- 

 tween two wooded hills, and just 

 above his home. Late last March I 

 again inquired about the birds and my 

 friend told me they had been pound- 

 ing in the woods above his house. 

 When a few days had passed I went 

 into that section of the county in 

 search of Red-tailed Hawk's nests. 

 Mr. Garrison directed me to the place 

 where he had frequently heard the 

 birds "pounding." I was not long in 

 detecting numerous chips upon the 

 ground, and peering up I discovered a 

 newly made hole, 35 feet above the 

 ground, in the dead top of a slender 

 live sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica). This 

 tree stood on a small flat and just be- 

 low the crest of the ridge. The woods 

 there was small but became more ex- 

 tensive as it crossed the hill into a 

 deep ravine. The day following I went 

 home with high hopes of returning to 

 this place when early May should 

 come. 



On May 7, accompanied by Profes- 

 sor R. C. Harlow, who had come to 

 spend several days with the birds, I 



took the hack for Pine Bank, a post 

 office seventeen miles away. From 

 this point we tramped over the hills 

 to the home of Mr. Garrison, arriving 

 after dark. Early the following morn- 

 ing we were all three at the base of 

 the gum tree. Harlow said the nest 

 looked fine; and 1 imagined the bird 

 was sitting on her eggs. However, up- 

 on ascending the tree, no bird appear- 

 ed at the opening. I cut awaj' the 

 tough outer bark and found that the 

 cavity held many large chips and two 

 black beetles alive. Such was the 

 luck! We went down the hill to the 

 house, not over an eighth of a mile 

 away, and after an hour had passed we 

 heard a pileated woodpecker calling 

 from the vicinity of our false nest. I 

 am unable to say whether the cavity 

 had been dug for nesting purposes or 

 whether it was one of the false holes 

 sometimes prepared by woodpeckers. 

 Guy told me that the birds had been 

 there digging all through April and 

 it seems strange that they should work 

 so diligently on a false hole. We spent 

 the next day in the neighborhood and 

 twice heard pileated woodpecker's 

 call notes. I found an old excavation 

 in the top of a gum snag. Mr. .Tame ■ 

 Carter visited the region a week later 

 and saw one of the birds picking at an 

 apple tree that stood in an orchard 

 near the house. It soon flew away to 

 the woods. 



On May 20 I was hunting for a nest 

 of Whip-poor-will in a forest of huge 

 oaks, that lay in a deep ravine, four 

 miles from my home. In the top of a 

 big white oak snag, and probably 25 

 feet above the ground, I spied a large 

 and new entrance hole of the pileated 

 woodpecker. There were chips on the 

 ground beneath the cavity, so I ex- 

 pected to find young birds in the nest. 

 No amount of pounding on the snag 

 produced a bird's head at the open- 

 ing. Upon ascending to the hole I 



