THE NORTHERN PILEATED WOODPECKER. 430 
whites are everywhere tinged with pale sulphur-yellow, the color being especially 
noticeable in the axillaries and lining of wings. Adult female: Similar, but black 
on forehead, and black instead of red malar stripes. Length 15.50-19.00 (393.7- 
482.6) ; wing 8.50-10.00 (215.9-254) ; tail 5.85-7.40 (148.6-188) ; head 4.50-5.50 
(114.3-139.7) ; bill 1.75-2.65 (44.5-67.3). 
Recognition Marks.—Largest size; black, white and red on head in stripes; 
body mainly black. 
Nesting.—Nest: high in dead trees. Eggs: 4-6, white. Av. size, 1.29 x .94 
(32.8 x 23.9). Season: May; one brood. 
General Range.—Formerly the heavily wooded regions of North America 
south of about latitude 63°, except in the southern Rocky Mountains. Now rare 
or extirpated in the more settled parts of the Eastern States. 
Range in Washington.—Not uncommon resident in larger coniferous for- 
ests thruout the State. 
Authorities.—| Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues, Vol. 
Il. p. 185.] Hylatomus pileatus Baird, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 
feo 7a C& ore Rh IDs. Ras Kk: BE. 
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN. 
ONE’S first acquaintance with this huge black fowl marks a red-letter 
day in woodcraft, and it is permitted the serious student to examine the bird 
anatomically just once ina life-time. The scarlet crest attracts first attention, 
not only because of its brilliancy, but because its presence counterbalances the 
bill, and imparts to the head its hammer-like aspect. This crest was much 
sought after by the Indians of our coast, and figured prominently as a personal 
decoration in their medicine dances, as did the bird itself in their medicine lore. 
A measurement of twenty-eight inches from wing-tip to wing-tip marks the size 
of this “Black Woodcock,” while the stiffened tail-feathers with their down- 
turned vanes show what adequate support is given the clinging claws when the 
bird delivers one of its powerful strokes. The bill is the marvel. Made ap- 
parently of horn, like other birds’ bills, it has some of the attributes of tem- 
pered steel. The bird uses it recklessly as both axe and crowbar, for it hews 
its way thru the bark of our largest dead fir trees, in its efforts to get at the 
grubs, which have their greatest field of activity between the bark and the 
wood. It pries off great chips and flakes by a sidewise wrench of its head. 
A carpenter is known by his chips, but no carpenter would put his chisels to 
such hard service as the bird does his. As a result there is no mistaking 
the bark pile which surrounds the base of certain old stubs in the forest for 
the work of any other agency. 
Possibly the most interesting of all is the Log-cock’s tongue, which it is 
able to protrude suddenly to a distance of four or five inches beyond the tip 
of its beak. This provision enables the bird to economize labor in the track- 
ing of buried sweets, and the arrangement is made possible by the great 
