THE PILEATED WOODPECKEE. 101 



and the little that it pilfers is much more than repaid by 

 the immense numbers of injurious larvae that it destroys. 



Wilson, in a very interesting account of the general 

 habits of this bird, says : 



" Almost every trunk in the forest where he resides bears the 

 marks of his chisel. Wherever he perceives a tree beginning to 

 decay, he examines it round and round with great skill and dex- 

 terity, strips off the bark in sheets of five or six feet in length, to 

 get at the hidden cause of the disease, and labors with a gayety and 

 activity really surprising. He is sometimes observed among the 

 hills of Indian corn, and it is said by some that he frequently feeds 

 on it. Complaints of this kind are, however, not general ; many 

 farmers doubting the fact, and conceiving that at these times he is 

 in search of insects which lie concealed in the husk. I will not be 

 positive that they never occasionally taste maize, yet I have opened 

 and examined great numbers of these birds, killed in various parts 

 of the United States, from Lake Ontario to the Alatamaha River, 

 but never found a grain of Indian corn in their stomachs." 



Audubon in his description of the breeding habits of this 

 bird says, 



" The hole was about eighteen inches deep, and I could touch 

 the bottom with my hand. The eggs, which were laid on frag- 

 ments of chips expressly left by the birds, were six, large, white, 

 and translucent. Before the woodpeckers began to set, I robbed 

 them of their eggs, to see if they would lay a second time. They 

 waited a few days, as if undecided, when, on a sudden, I heard the 

 female at work again in the tree. She once more deepened 

 the hole, made it broader at the bottom, and recommenced laying. 

 This time she laid five eggs. I suffered her to bring out her young, 

 both sexes alternately incubating, each visiting the other at inter- 

 vals, peeping into the hole to see that all was right and well there, 

 and flying off afterwards in search of food." 



