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100 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
to breed in Massachusetts ; but, as a general thing; it is not 
found south of the northern border of this State. Verrill, 
in his Catalogue of Maine birds, before referred to, says 
‘Cit is a common resident, and breeds:”’ he also says it is 
‘most common in winter.” 
The great size and strength of this bird enable it to 
pierce into and tear apart the decaying trees in which its 
food is burrowing, with wonderful facility and ease. I have 
at times, in passing through the forest, found huge trees 
that had died and fallen to the ground, with their bark 
stripped off, and large chips torn out, as if some animal had 
been at work on them; and I always supposed that a bear 
had been amusing himself, as those animals sometimes do, 
in this employment. One day I discovered the author of 
the demolition, and it proved to be the Pileated Woodpecker. 
While seated in the woods near the settlement known as 
Wilson’s Mills in Maine, I heard a large animal, as I sup- 
posed, rooting and tearing into a dead tree a few rods off. I 
crept up near the sound, hoping to get a shot at a bear, when 
I discovered this bird, which looked very much like a black 
hen, busily at work. He was searching for the borers and 
large black ants that hide beneath the bark ; and so earnestly 
was he employed, that he permitted me to approach very 
near him. He would force his powerful bill, by repeated 
strokes, into the bark, in holes in a direct line with the 
grain, until he had marked out a patch, perhaps six or eight 
inches square, and then, striking into it diagonally, tear it 
off, thus exposing the living vermin beneath, which he lost 
no time in securing. After clearing that spot, he moved to 
another, and repeated the same operation, until, by a sud- 
den movement, I startled him, when he flew off, uttering 
a rattling cackle similar to that of a garrulous hen. His 
flight was similar to that of the other woodpeckers de- 
scribed in another place in this volume. In addition to 
insects, this Woodpecker eats acorns, beech-nuts, berries, 
and Indian corn, but is not at all troublesome to farmers ; 
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