WOODPECKERS. 



103 



in all woods in which wide openings have appeared by 

 decay. It permits the hunter to approach with ease, 

 soon catches the eye on account of ite beautiful large 

 crest, and utters its screeching note frequently enough 

 to arrest the traveller's attention." This is all I have 

 discovered respecting the wild life, but it is sufficient 

 to make one marvel that the species has been so little 

 imported. An example was received 'by Miss Christiana 

 Hagenbeck in 1877, and was sent to the Zoological 

 Gardens of Frankfort. 



PlLEATED OB LARGER RED-CRESTED WOODPECKER 



(Dryotomus pihatus). 



Smoky black ; edge of wing white spotted with black ; 

 flights with concealed white bases ; outer webs of outer 

 primaries with sordid white terminal spot ; forehead, 

 crown and crest, as well as nuchal feathers and 

 moustachial stripe, crimson ; a narrow white eyebrow - 

 etripe extending backwards to occiput ; lower nasal 

 plumes and a broad stripe from nostril across face and 

 side of neck to side of chest, white ; chin and throat 

 white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white ; sides 

 and flanks indistinctly and narrowly barred with greyish 

 white ; bill blackish, grey above, pale horn-colour 

 beneath. ; feet 'bluish-black ; irides golden yellow. 

 Female with the cheeks wholly black ; margins of 

 frontal feathers and most of crown dark brown, the re- 

 mainder black, the back of crown and the crest alone 

 being crimson. Hab.. "Formerly the whole wooded 

 region of North America up to 63 deg. N. lat. Now 

 rare or extirpated in the more thickly settled parts 

 of the United States." (Hargitt.) 



Major Bendire ("Life Histories," Vol. II., 

 pp. 102-107) : " It is eminently a bird of the more exten- 

 sive forest regions, and is as much at home in a semi- 

 tropical as in a cold climate. As a rule, specimens from, 

 the northern borders of its range are considerably larger 

 than those from the south. There appears to be a con- 

 siderabls difference in the habits of this 'bird ; in some 

 sections it is extremely shy and wary, while in others 

 it is exactly the reveree. 



"The o-rdinary call-note is a loud 'cack-cack-cack,' 

 several times repeated ; another resembles the ' chuck- 

 up' of the Red-shafted Flicker, only somewhat slower, 

 louder, and clearer ; others, again, remind one of the 

 cackling of a domestic hen. One of its love notes, 

 according to Mr. A. Nehriing, sounds like ' a-wuck, 

 a-wuck,' and one of alarm, or anger, ' ha-hi. ha -hi.' It 

 is very noisy during the nesting season, and indulges in 

 a good deal of drumming at this time of year. I believe 

 they remain mated through life, and pairs are more 

 frequently seen than single birds. 



" Its food consists of the different species of boring 

 beetles and their iarvse infesting timbered tracts, and 

 of ants, many of which it captures on the around ; it 

 also feeds on wild grapes, the berries of the black gum, 

 dogwood,, pokeweed, service berries, acorns, beechnuts, 

 and chestnuts. Considered from an economic point of 

 view, it does far more good than harm, and only attacks 

 decaying and fallen timber. 



" Its flierht is 'both strong and swift at times, but, as 

 a rale, when at eaee it is slow and Grow-like, rather 

 more direct and not so undulating as that of meet of 

 our Woodpeckers, and is often protracted for long 

 distances. 



" In southern Florida the mating season commences 

 early in March, and farther north correspondingly later. 

 A suitable tree having been selected, generally a dead 

 one in large and extensive woods, both birds work alter- 

 nately on the nesting site. This is usually excavated 

 in the main trunk, from 12 to 75 feet from the ground, 

 and it takes from seven to twelve days to complete it. 



The entrance measures from 3 to 3 inches in diameter, 

 and it often goes 5 inches straight into the trunk before 

 it is worked downward. The cavity varies from 7 to 

 30 inches in depth, and is gradually enlarged toward 

 the bottom, where it is about 6 inches wide. A layer 

 of chips is left at the bottom, on which the eggs are 

 deposited. Occasionally the entrance hole, instead of 

 being circular, is oval in sjhape, like that of the Ivory- 

 billed Woodpecker. The inside of the cavity is quite 

 smooth, the edges of the entrance are nicely bevelled, 

 and, taken as a whole, it is quite an artistic piece of 

 work. Some of the birds, presumably such as have 

 been molested previously, are quite shy and artful, re- 

 moving every trace of chips as soon as loosened and 

 dropping them in different places, at some distance 

 from the nesting site, so as not to betray its location, by 

 the accumulation of chips at the base of the tree, and 

 occasionally they show, if possible, still more intelli- 

 gence. Dr. William L. Ralph .tells me that in. the 

 spring of 1892 he found a nest of this species in Putnam 

 County, Florida, where the bird is quite coimmon, exca- 

 vated in a dead cypress in swampy woods, which was 

 comparatively easy to get at. He found this in the 

 second week in April, about the time nidification is at 

 its height there. On rapping on the trunk of the tree 

 the bird, which was at 'home, stuck his head out of the 

 hole and dropped some chips, naturally causing the 

 Doctor to believe that the nesting site was still un- 

 finished. The same performance was repeated on several 

 subsequent visits, and finally he concluded to examine 

 the nest anyhow, when he found nearly full-grown 

 young. This pair of birds must have had egns at the 

 time he first discovered the nest, and the chips were 

 simplv thrown out as a ruse to deceive him. 



"The trees most often used for needing sites are 

 cypress, gum, pine, fig, tamarisk, oak, sycamore, elm, 

 birch and cclttcniwooid, and in southern Flo-dda the trunk 

 orf the cabbage spai'meMo also furnishes suitable nesting 

 sites. Besides the customary layer of chips found in the 

 bottom of the hole, one of the nesting sites examined 

 bv Dr. RaJph contained fully a mint of clean eand." 

 " From itihree to five eiggs a.re u&uallv Laid ito a set, but 

 I ^ have seen it stated that the Pileated Woodpecker 

 often laid six, and that a nest found near Farmville, 

 Virginia, contained eight. An e-crg is deposited daily, 

 and incubation begins occasionally before the set is 

 completed, and Lasts about eighteen days, both sexes 

 assisting in tb : is duty, as 'well as in caning fcir the 

 young. Like all Woodpecker, the Pileated are veny 

 devoted (parents, and the young foil-low (them for ?ome 

 weeks after leaving the nest, until fully capable of 

 caring for themselves. Only one brood is raised in a 

 season. The egigs of the Pi'ilea-ted Woodpecker are pure 

 china white in colour, mostly ovate in shape ; the shell 

 is exjceediinigtl'v fine-grained and very glossy, as if 

 enamelled : they a.re not as 'pointed as those of the 

 Ivorv-lbilled, and average smaller. 



" The average imeiasureimeints oif twenty -nine speci- 

 mens in the United States National Museum collection, 

 mostly f.rnm Florida, a.re 32.44 by 24.08 millimetres, or 

 about 1.28 by 0.95 inch." 



Russ says that 'this species reaches us very rarely, 

 and indeed onlv in zoological gardens ; again, he speci- 

 fies no particular gardens which have poeises-sed it. In 

 future ithev will proibablv have to acquire it by exchange 

 with the New York Zoological Park or some other big 

 institution in the -States. 



PIGMY BARRED WOODPECKER (Picumnus cirrhatus). 



Above brown, with ill-defined buff-brownish bars ; 

 wing-coverts tipped with buff-brownish or whity- 

 n ; flights more or less ed.ged -interna-lily with dull 



