NATURAL HISTORY. 



26 



CKESTED WOODPECKER. 



CHIMXEY SWALLOW. 



SWALLOW TREES. 



is of a brilliant scarlet, excepting the wings 

 and tail, which are black, and the under 

 wing coverts, which are yellow. Bill and 

 legs brownish horn color. Female and 

 young dull green, or brownish j-ellow. 

 Wings and tail, brown, with the feathers 

 edged with greenish. Color of the bill and 

 legs lighter than in the male. Length, 

 6.6 inches; spread, 10.5. 



History. — This bird, on account of the 

 bright red color of the male, is sometimes 

 called the Fire Bird. It is also known in 

 many places as the Blackwinged Bed Bird. 

 It rears its young in Vermont, but is said 

 to extend its summer migrations northward, 

 as far as the 69th parallel of latitude. Its 

 nest is usually built on the horizontal 

 branch of a forest tree, 10 or 1-5 feet from 

 the gi'ound. It is composed of sticks, 

 weeds and vines, nicely put together, and 

 lined with finer materials. The eggs are 

 usually 4, of a dull blue color, spotted with 

 different shades of brown . It is a shy bird, 

 occupying retired places, and manifests 

 great solicitude for the safety of its young. 

 One of the nests of this bird, found by my 

 indefitigable friend, Paine, in Randolph, 

 was on the branch of a maple, in the skirt 

 of a forest, was 10 feet from the ground, 

 and composed of hemlock twigs, laced and 

 bound together with fibrous weeds and 

 strings. It was 1.5 inch deep, and con- 

 tained three eggs. The male bird showed 

 much uneasiness when the discoverer 

 approached the nest. 



THE CRESTED WOODPECKER. 



Picus pileaius. — Lixx.eus. 



Desckiptiox. — Genei'al color black. Chin 

 white, with a rusty white stripe over the 

 eye, and another from the nostril extending 

 backward along the side of the neck to the 

 base of the wings, which are, on the under 

 side, of a delicate straw color. Vanes of 

 the basal part of the wing feathers, white 

 on the upper side, but nearly concealed by 

 the wing coverts, when the wing is closed. 

 Crest and mustachios, in the male, bright 

 yellowish carmine red; crown variegated 

 v«-ith black and golden yellow. Irides 

 bright orange; bill and claws dark horn 

 color, the bill a little lighter below, sharply 

 ridged above and on the sides ; with the 

 mandibles, which are of equal length, 

 bi-ought to vertical cutting edges at their 

 points. Tongue slender, pi-otractile and 

 barbed towards the point. Tail wedge- 

 shaped; feathers 12, stiff and pointed, cen- 

 tral ones longest. Length of the specimen 

 here described, which was a female, 18 in- 

 ches; spread, 28; from the point of the bill 

 to the feathers 2.4 :to the top of the crest 4.5. 

 Length of the folded wing, 9.5, — tail, 7, 



reaching three inches beyond the tip of the 

 folded wing. 



History. — For the specimen here descri- 

 bed I was indebted to Mr. Austin Isham, of 

 Williston, who shot it near Shelburne pond, 

 on the 10th of November, 1851. It was a 

 female, and on skinning and dissecting it, 

 I found in its craw more than 100 flat, 

 jointed worms. They were, most of them, 

 entire, about an inch long, and of a yellow- 

 ish white color; such, in short, as are very 

 common between the bark and wood of old 

 trees. The gizzard contained parts of 

 worms, and a large quantity of the frag- 

 ments of ants and coleopterous insects, but 

 no gravel. 



Though no where numerous, this Wood- 

 pecker is found in all parts of the United 

 States and as far north as the fiSd parallel 

 of latitude. In Vermont it has been very 

 generally called the Woodcock. It is a 

 very restless and retired bird, confining 

 himself chiefly to the depths of the forests, 

 and hence he is much more frequently 

 heard than seen. In the early part of 

 spring, as is well known to those employed 

 at that season in the manufacture of maple 

 sugar, his loud cackle and the sound of his 

 powerful blows upon the old trees, are 

 heard, reverberating through the naked 

 forests, to a great distance. Like the other 

 woodpeckers, it builds its nest in a ca,vity, 

 hollowed out of an old tree, and lays about 

 6 purely white eggs. 



CHIMNEY SAV ALLOW,— (Part 1—98.) 



Cypselus j)elasgius. — Tem. 



In our account of this bird, we spoke of 

 its habit, when the country was new, of 

 resorting in immense numbers to hollow 

 trees, in spring and autumn, and that there 

 were many trees in this state, which were, 

 on that account, extensively known as 

 swallow trees. jMany of these trees had, 

 probably, been resorted to by thousands of 

 birds, year after year, for centuries. The 

 consequence would naturally be, that the 

 hollow, in which they roosted, would be 

 gradually filled up from the bottom, by the 

 excrement, cast oil" feathers, exuvia of in- 

 sects, and rotten wood ; and trees have been 

 often found in this condition, long after the 

 swallows had ceased to resort to them; and 

 even after they had been blown down, and 

 had become rotten by lying. One of tliis 

 kind, in Ohio, is described in Harris" .Jour- 

 nal, and quoted in Wilson's Ornithologj'. 

 The tree was a sycamore, five feet in diam- 

 eter, which had been blown down, and 

 whose immense hollow was found filled, 

 for the space of 15 feet, with a "mass of 

 decayed feathers, with an admixture of 



