THE WOODPECKERS. 149 



laugh that thoroughly startled me. Looking up, I 

 saw on a huge dead hemlock a Pileated Woodpecker, 

 the " Black Log-cock" of which I had heard the bark- 

 gatherers speak. The bird had not heard me call, and 

 commenced at once a strange rattling of the dead wood 

 of the old tree, for it had no bark, and at times uttered 

 a loud clicking sound, as a hen's cackle the moment 

 she leaves her nest. Very soon another and then a 

 third came, and the noise made by the three could, I 

 think, have been heard a mile off. At a signal, or 

 alarmed by the same real or fancied danger, they 

 suddenly darted off, flying laboriously but rapidly 

 down the rocky glen. Although I was near the 

 same spot for many days after, I saw no more 

 of them, but at night their call could at times be 

 heard, and I was told that " they never slept unless 

 the night was pitch dark." I do not, however, ac- 

 cept this statement as correct, and yet why should 

 we doubt the assertions of those who have had 

 every opportunity to observe birds and make a habit 

 of doing so ? 



In June, 1867, I rambled for several days in this 

 same old woods and again saw these birds. There 

 were two which I took to be mates, and this proved 

 to be true, as a day later I found them again and saw 

 the tree in which they had their nest. There were 

 never two more noisy, wary, restless birds, and I had 

 to content myself with glimpses now and then, and 

 without a field-glass would probably not have seen 

 them at all. 



In April, 1879, I was more fortunate. In Linn 

 County, North Carolina, I found them abundant and 

 13* 



